^^W-Jp^ 



ipse?/ 

■ ■■?--, : ■■■ 









Book 






l/j,i 



y^ 



GpigM?. 



CDBORIGHT 5jEPOSH> 



THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 



•The 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

NEW YORK • BOSTON ■ CHICAGO • DALLAS 
ATLANTA • SAN FRANCISCO 

MACMILLAN & CO., Limited 

LONDON • BOMBAY • CALCUTTA 
MELBOURNE 

THE MACMILLAN CO. OF CANADA, Ltd. 

TORONTO 



Digitized by the Internet Archive 
in 2011 with funding from 
The Library of Congress 



http://www.archive.org/details/earlyhistoryofcuOOwrig 



V 




: 1 ? 

r i 




-i 
-*1 




: 


&v 


p 


.&**; 


U-.- 






\ 
1 


H 




1 








SSt^ 








f^^-^ l\ i 






9 


' i> ■ 








4*- 
r 








/ 










; y 




- ■% ' 


~. ^^ 


c 




1 




Pi& 


§ 










1 








if 2 


\-*'"' 
















., /, -:■•• - 











DESCRIPTION AND PLAN 

OF THE CITY OF HAVANA 

(1603) 

CRISTOBAL RODA 

1. The church. 

2. The Dominican convent. . 

3. The Franciscan convent. 

4. The old hospital. 

5. The new hospital. 

6. Fuerza. 

7. Platform. 

8. The old enclosure about the city. 

9. The walls as then planned. 

10. The Plaza de Armas. 

11. The new plaza. 

12. Open country. 

13. The harbor. 

14. Swamp. 

15. Moat. 

16. Terraplen. 

17. City gates. 

18. Customs house. 

19. Jail. 

20. Meat-market. 

21. Governor's house. 

22. Squares of houses. 

23. Harbor entrance. 

24. Maestranza. 

Note : The large water-colored original of this map which the au- 
thor found in 54-1-16 has been removed from that package and along 
with other heretofore unknown Cuban maps and plans which were 
discovered in the course of the investigation this book represents, it 
is now displayed in a special Cuban case in the exhibition hall of the 
Archives of the Indies at Seville. 



THE 
EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

1492-1586 



WRITTEN FROM ORIGINAL SOURCES 
BY 

I. A. WRIGHT 



Sforo fork 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1916 

All rights reserved 



F/7 






Copyright, 1916, 

By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY, 

Set up and electrotyped. Published November, 1916. 




NOV 23 1918 



IA445753 






THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED 

TO 

ROLAND RAY CONKLIN 

His interest in Cuba's history made 
possible the first thorough investigation 
into the sources of that history which 
are the Cuban documents in the General 
Archive of the Indies at Seville, Spain. 

The Author 



Q 



CONTENTS 

Page 

Map of the City of Havana Frontispiece 

Introduction xiii 

BOOK I. 1492-1524 

_ Spain Takes Possession of Cuba 

Chapter 

I. Discovery 5 

II. Exploration and Occupation 17 

III. "The Pestilence of the Repartimiento " 38 

IV. First Settlement 57 

V. The Flow and High-tide of Prosperity 66 

VI. The Exodus to Mexico 85 

BOOK II. 1524-1550 

An Era of Stagnation 

VII. The Rise of Local Patriotism 101 

VIII. Gonzalo de Guzman and Juan de Vadillo 115 

IX. "Different Liberty" 135 

X. The Lure of Florida 158 

XL Ebb Tide, — Ortiz, de Avila, Chaves 173 

XII. Social, Agricultural and Commercial Develop- 
ment 190 

BOOK III. 1550-1567 
French Influence 

XIII. First Forts and Armadas 215 

XIV. Destructive Activities of the French 228 

XV. Spain's Reliance on Military and Naval Force 242 

XVI. Invincible Development 258 

xi 



xii CONTENTS 

Chapter p AGE 

XVII. Pedro Menendez de Aviles 270 

XVIII. French Influence Wanes 285 

BOOK IV. 1567-1586 
The Menace of the English 

XIX. Montalvo and Carreno 297 

XX. Luxan AND Quinones 324 

XXI. Drake 346 

XXII. The Annoyance of the French 361 

The End of an Era 369 

Glossary 371 

Index 379 

Topics 379 

Persons 384 

Places 389 



INTRODUCTION 

This book is the history of Cuba from its discovery 
by Columbus in 1492, through the year 1586, when 
Sir Francis Drake, in sailing along the north shore of 
the island after his successful raid on other Spanish 
settlements of the West Indies, closed the first era of 
the colony's history. In that raid "the great corsair" 
demonstrated that Britannia ruled the waves of the 
Spanish main and that to hold possession of its shores 
and islets the Catholic King must enable his colonies 
there to defend themselves since his humbled navy 
was no longer equal to the task. Immediately Philip 
acted and there arose great forts, in Havana as else- 
where, which are enduring monuments to Draque, 
hated by Spaniards to this day! In the safe shadow 
of these forts, industry and agriculture began to de- 
velop and, thanks especially to sugar and to copper, 
Cuba ceased to be a mere wayport of empire between 
the peninsula of Spain and the American continents: 
she came to be prized not only because of her geo- 
graphical position (of great strategic importance) but 
also upon her own account for her own inherent worth. 

Although the writing of the consecutive history of a 
country is not usually so undertaken, I have compiled 
this book from the documents now (1915) available to 
investigators in the Archive of the Indies at Seville, 
Spain, with regard, however, to the few published 
works which are of value in a study of this portion of 



xiv INTRODUCTION 

Cuba's development. Unquestionably many docu- 
ments relating to the island in the years cited exist in 
other archives than Seville's; I have not attempted to 
see them for the simple reason that the quantity of 
those at Seville is overwhelming. The character and 
the continuity of the documents I have seen persuades 
me that the account of Cuba's progress which I have 
been able to construct from them is too substantial 
to be entirely upset by any others elsewhere. 

To those not familiar with the General Archive of the 
Indies at Seville, I would say that it is the Spanish 
government's collection, freely open to students, of 
nearly all the papers which accumulated through cen- 
turies in offices in Spain and in America from which 
that government administered its overseas possessions 
from the era of discovery until revolution wrote finis 
to the record of colony after colony. Cuba, because 
she remained long under Spanish domination, is fully, — • 
I was about to say the most fully, — 'represented among 
these documents; and perhaps it is for the very same 
reason that her papers have been less studied, not to 
say not studied at all. 

They lie practically untouched, — well preserved 
manuscripts done into uncounted big packages of the 
letters and reports of the island's governors, of her 
royal officials, of her bishops and lesser clergy, of her 
municipal and ecclesiastical councils, of her distin- 
guished and of even her humble citizens; uncounted 
tomes wherein were copied as they were issued all the 
royal communications which were the colony's law; 
accounts of many varieties; civil and criminal law 
suits of all sorts, and too many ponderous hide-bound 
volumes of residencias. Some of these documents 



INTRODUCTION xv 

Munoz copied for his Coleccion which exists only in 
MSS. at Madrid and makes them therefore no more 
generally accessible than they were before. Some have 
been printed, scattered through the inaccurate index- 
less first series of Documentos Ineditos and filling three 
volumes of the much better presented second series 
of those unedited documents. Some, too, have been 
published elsewhere either whole, as appendices, or 
in part, as footnotes: these are particularly mislead- 
ing, presented as they are without their setting of the 
documents which occasioned, accompanied, modified 
or cancelled them. Even the two series of Documentos 
Ineditos are only irritating in direct proportion to a 
student's realization that they are a selection and one 
not particularly well chosen nor with knowledge of all 
there was from which to choose. In fact, not one docu- 
ment concerning Cuba in one thousand that exist at 
Seville has been made public in any way, shape, or 
manner. I believe therefore I am justified in saying that 
the sources for Cuban history have been heretofore 
unknown. 

This is, of course, to declare that the history of the 
island has not been written until this present book. 
Bold as this statement may seem to be I believe that 
it, too, is justified by the facts. History cannot be 
written without access to its documentary sources; 
Cuba's are at Seville, and at Seville no person has 
sought these sources since they became accessible 
except myself and Mr. Francis S. Philbrick of the 
University of California, — foreigners, both of us, to 
the island which interests us. Even Pezuela, insigne 
espanol, wrote of Cuba before the sources were so ac- 
cessible, and he realized as much and confessed it. 



xvi INTRODUCTION 

This being the situation I have ignored secondary 
sources, — even Pezuela's work, to which nevertheless 
I desire to pay tribute of my appreciation of the labor 
it represents. I have ignored secondary sources be- 
cause I know that there has passed through my hands 
a greater wealth of material for the writing of the 
history of Cuba than any other person has handled. 
My reliance is on that material. For every statement 
of fact in this work, for which no other authority is 
given, I consider myself obligated to meet demands 
that I cite, not merely case, shelf and package at Seville 
(as I have done in the foreword to each book of this 
volume in terms unhappily unintelligible outside the 
Archive), but definitely the very paper within those 
bundles which I have considered evidence sufficient to 
warrant the statement concerned. 

An examination into these papers may at any point 
prove me to have misread, to have misconstrued, or to 
have omitted; it is not easy, as circumstances now are, 
for any person who may become my critic to make 
that examination, — 'not every reader may go to Seville 
to see for himself how nicely I have handled this ma- 
terial, nor outside of Seville can any one collect docu- 
mentary evidence he can be certain outweighs what I 
may have seen there, and in historical controversies 
documents must answer documents. Nothing else 
suffices. Because I do not rejoice in this immense 
advantage in my favor I have urged that Cubans 
bestir themselves to have published the material for 
the writing of their history which exists nowhere save 
at Seville. I have urged it, despite the detail that I 
recognize it to be a Herculean task to publish that 
unmeasured, but not unmeasurable, quantity of docu- 



INTRODUCTION xvii 

ments! I hope to see the Cuban government or some 
scholarly association worthy of Cuba undertake the 
task, — -the patriotic task of making those sources pub- 
lic by printing them "to the foot of the letter," unedited, 
i. e., uninfluenced by any man's opinion. When the 
sources are so made accessible, — verbatim et literatim, — ■ 
the island's fair record and fair fame will have been 
protected. Then, also, intelligent discussion of that 
record will become for the first time possible and much 
eulogy as well as much denunciation will be silenced 
by a reasonable acquaintance with the truth. 

The Author. 
La Lonja, Sevilla, Andalusia 
May 4, 1914-£epZ. 9, 1915. 



THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 



FOREWORD TO BOOK I 

Although it was the intention to write this book 
from original sources available in the Archive of the 
Indies at Seville, i. e., from manuscript documents 
there preserved of the times, the places, the persons 
concerned, certain existing books could by no means 
be ignored in the commencement of the work: because 
their authors lived and wrote of Cuba in the very years 
with which I have had to deal. Of chief value among 
these is Fray Bartolome de las Casas' History of the 
Indies. I do not care to undertake to defend the good 
clerigo's estimates of numbers, but this I must say: 
his relation of the facts of the occupation of Cuba is 
not at variance with the documents I have seen, nor 
do these documents give me any reason to suppose 
that his impassioned accounts of the cruelty of their 
Spanish masters toward the aborigines are exaggerated. 
Except where numbers,— his estimates of populations 
and of the killed, — 'are concerned I believe that docu- 
ments could be cited toward proving true with respect 
to Cubefios every allegation of mistreatment and 
misery las Casas makes in the history cited. I have 
also made use of Oviedo's good work; of Gomara; of 
Solis; of Bernal Diaz del Castillo; even of Herrera, and 
of still others who, however, I do not at the moment of 
this writing recall as having contributed any con- 
siderable amount of information. The two published 
series of Documentos Ineditos have been used; especially 
the second is of real value up to 1555. 

l 



2 FOREWORD TO BOOK I 

Since the bulk of the material I have used is, as 
stated in the introduction, not accessible as yet ex- 
cept to investigators in the Archive of the Indies, I 
find myself obliged to address to them the following 
remarks concerning that used in Book I. of this history; 
I am reduced to employing terms they will understand, 
even at the risk of seeming to others to be as unintel- 
ligible as a cipher letter from an admiral of his armada 
to the Catholic King! 

I found my first reference to Cuba in 139-1-1, T. I., 
f. 24, and from there worked forward on the lead 
through that series, finding evidence that I was delving 
in the right direction in 139-1-4, T. II., f. 18 r. I saw 
all, I think, which there was to see in 139-1-4; 139-1-5; 
139-1-6 and 139-1-7. This series of cedularios was 
my main vein at the commencement of the work. I 
found supplementary material for this first period in 
1-1-1/15; 1-1-1/18; 1-1-1/20; 1-1-1/26; 1-2-1/17; 
1-2-2/18; 1-2-7/27; 1-2-8/28; 1-3-17/8; 1-3-20/11; 
1-3-30/21; 2-1-1/20; 2-1-1/25; 2-1-2/26; 2-1-3/22; 
2-2-1/1; 2-2-1/14; 2-5-1/9; 2-5-1/14; 47-1-3/30; 
51-5-1/11; 53-1-9; 51-5-1/11; 143-3-11; and in 
54-2-2, in which series I knew that I touched the lode. 
As these numbers will intimate to those who under- 
stand the arrangement of the Archive of the Indies, 
I did not confine my examination to packages, the 
labels of which suggested that I might, find them 
valuable; I was content to see nothing less than every- 
thing there was in the place dated after 1508 and not 
branded as originating on the continent south of 
Mexico. I found enough documents referring to Cuba 
in packages where they might not be supposed to rest, 
to compensate me for going through stacks of other 



FOREWORD TO BOOK I 3 

such packages which were just what they purported 
to be and therefore of no worth to me. I did not at 
any time narrow this generous survey of my field for 
work. Who knows the Archive of the Indies will 
appreciate what an amount of drudgery I undertook; 
no others can. Who knows the Archive will also ap- 
preciate my reluctance to boast that I have seen every 
paper in it referring to Cuba between 1508 and 1600; 
I have the temerity, nevertheless, to say that I would 
be pleased to have any investigator there exhibit one 
between those dates from which my weary eyes have 
not acquired its corresponding portion of their ache ! 

I. A. W. 



THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

BOOK I 
CHAPTER I 

DISCOVERY (1492) 
"Taino! Taino!" 1 

Christopher Columbus' diary shows that while ex- 
ploring among the Bahamas, immediately after in dis- 
covering them he had found a New World "for Castile 
and for Leon," the Admiral had news from the na- 
tives of those keys of another island he seems at first 
to have thought they called Colba. He presently un- 
derstood the word aright, to be Cuba. He heard at 
the same time of Bosio or Bohio, which he thought a 
separate island, whereas it may have been the eastern 
end of Cuba as distinguished from the rest and identi- 
fied with Hayti especially in the more bellicose charac- 
ter of its inhabitants. 

Columbus believed that Cuba was Cipango, that 
half or wholly mythical land of gold and pearls, 
precious stones and spiceries, which Marco Polo in 
describing it located some fifteen hundred miles off the 
continent of India. Therefore he readily interpreted 
the natives of the Bahaman keys to say that in Cuba 

1 Aboriginal word for "Peace!" or "We are friends!" A native 
salutation to Columbus. 

5 



6 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

there were numerous great merchants and navigators, 
and a commerce commensurate with the magnificence 
of populous cities of a large and wealthy oriental state. 
He bent his course southwestward and on October 28, 
1492, having lain off shore all night in a rain, he landed 
on Cuba which he christened Juana for the prince, 
Don Juan, son of Isabella of Castile, Columbus' patron, 
and of her husband, Ferdinand of Aragon. 

I do not believe that Columbus' landfall can be de- 
termined. The honor of his first debarkation has been 
claimed for every considerable port from Baracoa to 
Nuevitas; it can be proven for none, since the sole 
source of information on this point, Columbus' diary 
as preserved in extract only by Fray Bartolome de las 
Casas, reflects the confusion which existed in the dis- 
coverer's mind as he sailed along the unknown coast 
of an island which is on the other side of the world 
from where he supposed it to be, seeking to find in the 
palm-thatched huts of simple savages signs of the 
fabulous capital city of Cathay! 

He believed this city to be ten days' sailing west- 
ward still from the point at which he had landed on 
Cuba, and in hopes to reach it he continued in that 
direction, coasting the north shore. On November 2nd 
from a good port he called Rio de Mares he sent Rodrigo 
de Jerez and Luis de Torres, "who had been a Jew 
and was said to know Hebrew and Chaldean and some 
Arabic," inland accompanied by two natives he had 
taken from the Bahamas; they were to establish com- 
munication between him and the Grand Kahn. He 
careened his ships while he waited for them to return. 
On the 6th they came, and reported encountering 
nothing more imposing than a native village of fifty 



DISCOVERY (1492) 7 

huts "and a thousand inhabitants," of whom they 
got no news of any Oriental potentate. The most 
significant sight these earliest explorers of Cuba saw 
was natives smoking tobacco. 

On November 12th Columbus turned back, retracing 
his course along that northern shore, attracted now to 
the southeast by what he understood the natives he 
had with him to tell of "the island of Babeque . . . 
where the people gather gold with lights on the beach 
at night." Although buffeted by contrary winds and 
opposing currents he succeeded in making cursory ex- 
ploration of much of the north coast of Cuba. He 
departed from the eastern extremity of the island on 
December 5th, 1492, for Hayti which lay in sight upon 
his horizon. 

Columbus named Hayti La Espahola, i. e., the 
Spanish island. At a point on the north shore which 
he called La Navidad he left a party of less than forty 
men, in a fort built of the timbers of one of his ships 
which was wrecked on Christmas Day. He then sailed 
home to Spain (1493), with news of his discoveries 
but without the remotest conception of their real na- 
ture or therefore of their magnitude. 

Cuba, as Columbus saw this island, appealed to him 
as lovely in the extreme; he depleted his vocabulary 
of Spanish adjectives in persistent attempt to describe 
its green and fragrant woodlands, where, among trees 
of strange varieties displaying leaves, flowers and fruits 
of kinds he had not seen before, he recognized palms and 
pines; its rivers, pouring to the ocean, cool between 
banks fringed thick with vegetation; its mountains 
towering snowless and eternally green with unfailing 
verdure, and the little hills and the plains between 



8 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

where though it was November the grass grew tall as 
it does in Andalusia in April and in May. The air was 
sweet with unidentified perfume and the singing of 
birds in the thickets; it was temperate, even pleasantly 
chill. He could not sufficiently extol what he saw; he 
thought a thousand tongues could not adequately relate 
its loveliness. Human eyes, he wrote, could never tire 
of seeing such beauty, nor human ears of hearing the 
music of those wild birds in the woods. He urged the 
queen and the king to whom he addressed his diary to 
believe his testimony; he regretted that there were 
not with him many persons known to be conservative, 
to see what he saw, since they he felt assured would 
not praise it less. It pleased God, he exclaimed, to 
lead him on, from marvel to greater marvel, and now 
past a land not surpassed under the sun in climate, 
soil and abundance of potable waters, sure to prove 
materially profitable to Christendom, and to Spain 
especially, through interchange of traffic, and certain 
to redound to the increase and the glory of the Catholic 
religion through the conversion to the faith of the mul- 
titudes of its population. 

On November 13th, upon an eminence, Columbus 
erected a great cross of very suitable timbers which 
he had found, ready, apparently, for that symbolic 
purpose. 

Of gold, however, to be bartered for like common 
merchandise, Columbus saw none in the possession of 
the natives of Cuba, who proffered him instead as 
their most valuable belonging "cotton" gathered from 
the ceiba trees, which he thought they did not cultivate 
to obtain the crop; they wove this "cotton" into cloth. 
He reported to the monarchs that doubtless Spanish 



DISCOVERY (1492) 9 

merchants could build up profitable trade in this tree 
"cotton" with the great cities he was yet to find in the 
kingdom of the Grand Kahn and in those of his neighbor 
lords of the Orient. Once Columbus thought he saw a 
native wearing a silver nose-ring and he thought, too, 
that he saw rock which promised silver mines. He 
sent down divers for pearls but found the oysters barren. 
Along the beaches where streams poured down from 
certain mountains he remarked stones the color of 
iron, in a vicinity (Moa) where within only the last 
few years tremendous deposits of iron ore have been 
definitely charted for industrial exploitation. There, 
too, and elsewhere he saw pine trees of girth and height 
to serve as masts for mighty ships, and he noted a 
suitable site for a waterpower sawmill. He tapped for 
rosin and considered the possibility of revenue from 
this source to be worth investigating. In ports he 
visited he picked up stones which gleamed yellow and 
he brought them to Spain for assay, but always when 
he insisted upon gold the natives waved him on, south- 
westward still toward Babeque. It is possible that 
Babeque was Hayti: considerable free gold was found 
there and it was the value of its mines which made 
La Espanola the earliest center of Spanish settlement. 
American geologists state that in former ages what 
is now Cuba was two islands separated by a shallow 
sea. Its bottom, rising, has united them. One island 
has become the mountainous western end of Cuba and 
the other the even more mountainous eastern end; what 
was the sea bed is now the comparatively uneventful 
plain of the central provinces of the republic. The 
two extremities of the island differ in geological forma- 
tion; they differ in indigenous flora, in cultivated crops, 



10 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

and vastly in appearance as seen by the most un- 
scientific eye. It seems quite probable that in 1492 
they were inhabited by differing peoples. 

Concerning the tribes which lived in the west end 
of Cuba very little indeed is known. Those of the 
east seem to have feared them. They were reported 
to "have no houses nor towns nor cultivated crops, — ■ 
they live by hunting and fishing." 

The aborigines of the eastern end of Cuba were 
further advanced in culture. They were a sedentary 
agricultural people, probably true Tainans, as Dr. 
Fewkes writing for the Smithsonian has designated 
the original Antillan race as distinguished from the 
Carib and unmodified by it. 

Cuba cannot, however, have remained uninvaded 
by that more bellicose race, the Caribs, at home on the 
South American mainland and on accessible islands 
of which they had taken possession. It is possible that 
Caribs who arrived as raiders remained as residents of 
Cuba. Nevertheless, Tainan characteristics seem to 
have prevailed in the people the Spaniards found here. 

The Cubenos as the aborigines of Cuba have been 
called to distinguish them from Cubans, their succes- 
sors on the soil, were evidently a good-looking race. 
More than once their Spanish conquerors commented 
upon the handsome physical development of the men; 
among the women they found beauty. Their reddish 
color was not unattractive. 

Modesty seems to have been as lacking among them 
as it is among the lower animals; they were no more 
depraved. Assertion that they were unnaturally 
vicious is unwittingly contradicted time and again by 
the Spaniards themselves who seem so to have accused 



DISCOVERY (1492) 11 

them in order to justify their own cruelty. The men 
and maidens wore no clothing despite the fact that they 
knew how to weave their tree " cotton" into cloth. 
The matrons wore breech-clouts. All were fond of 
necklaces and girdles which they made of bone and of 
pebbles; what little gold (and possibly some silver) 
they used in similar adornment was not more prized 
than bright stones. 

They lived in houses they called buhios or bohios, a 
name which along with the type of building persists 
to this day. Aboriginal bohios were circular in shape 
(when they were called caneyes) or rectangular. They 
were constructed of " canes," presumably bamboo, 
and thatched with palm leaves or other suitable ma- 
terial. Some had windows and porch. There is reason 
to believe that the aborigines of Cuba built better 
houses of this description than does the guajiro (coun- 
try Cuban) of the present day. The Cubefio's house 
was possibly the more artistically furnished of the two. 
He had for bed a finely woven hammock; the article 
and its name are of American origin. He had baskets 
and decorated pottery, stone and carven pestles. In 
some houses there were handsomely carved wooden 
seats. Spanish explorers bore admiring witness to the 
detail that this aboriginal home was clean and tidy. 
No present-day traveller through rural Cuba can 
speak as enthusiastically for the guajiro's habitation. 
These houses were isolated, preferably on hilltops, or 
gathered into towns, when they were arranged around 
a central square. 

Each such town seems to have had a clan chieftain 
or patriarchal head whose house was larger than the 
rest and contained the idols belonging to the families 



12 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

resident there. It is possible that over such chieftains 
there were others. The Spaniards mentioned " kings." 
Certainly they considered aboriginal Cuba to be divided 
into " provinces," and spoke of the native chiefs, 
caciques, of those provinces, but from their confused 
accounts in which every leader was a cacique it is im- 
possible to learn anything satisfactory of the real 
political organization of primitive Cuba. 

Polygamy was practiced. Of the marriage cere- 
mony little is known. Fathers disposed of their daugh- 
ters and grooms purchased their brides with dower 
gifts. Caciques had many wives. The aboriginal 
Cubena seems to have been almost her man's equal in 
their simple daily life. The Cuberio deeply resented 
Spanish lust which seized upon her and degraded her. 
Spanish chronicles do not relate that she was the work 
animal which North American Indians, for instance, 
make of their squaws. There were in Hayti women 
who exerted great influence in native affairs; some 
were chief tainesses in their own right. 

The Cubefios believed in supernatural beings: they 
had theories of their nature and power, implying 
possession of a mythology, and they employed a well- 
developed system of rites, ceremonies and procedures 
to influence these beings whom they symbolized by 
idols made of wood, stone, cloth, etc. They had a 
priesthood; they believed its members to be skilled in 
divination. Elsewhere such priests are known to have 
had elaborate mechanical contrivances to deceive their 
followers. They also treated the sick on whom they 
exerted the magic powers of their tutelary gods. In 
the Cubeho's ceremonies tobacco as a narcotic played 
a most interesting part. 



DISCOVERY (1492) 13 

The aborigine was an inveterate dancer. It seems 
to have been his very greatest delight to caper to the 
sound of his own voice, singing. There were religious 
dances, war dances and other dances which appear 
to have been purely recreative. His only other amuse- 
ment was a ball game and, possibly, swimming. He 
was a tireless swimmer. 

The Cubefio made canoes (another word and article 
of American origin), hollowing them out of the boles 
of great trees. Some canoes were handsomely orna- 
mented. In these he travelled the coasts of the island 
and may possibly have made trading voyages to the 
surrounding continents. 

The aborigine was an expert fisherman. He caught 
fish in nets or speared them. He had artificial fish- 
ponds and traps. He used the sucker-fish, attaching a 
cord to it; when it had fastened itself to its prey, a 
turtle, say, he drew both in. 

The Cubeno cultivated the soil; he is even said to 
have practiced irrigation, but certainly not effectively 
for drouths brought him fatal famine. He grew food 
crops which were unquestionably the same on which 
rural Cuba subsists yet, i. e., yuca, from which the 
aborigine made cazabi bread (still eaten in the country) ; 
yams, ground nuts (peanuts) ; a certain type of squash, 
maize, beans, peppers and indigenous fruits from among 
which it is curious to note was lacking the one which 
seems commonest in the woodlands now, that is, the 
mango. It is an importation and so, surely, is the 
" native" lime and the wild orange despite evidence 
to the contrary which their presence now in the jungles 
of eastern Cuba would seem to constitute. 

The aborigine was a hunter, but he killed for food, not 



14 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

for pleasure. His biggest game was the woodrat (the 
hutia) of which he made a domestic pet as he did of the 
yaguasa duck. These two creatures bear his successor, 
the guajiro, pleasant company to this day. The Cubeno 
had also, however, another pet, a "mute dog," which is 
now extinct; some students believe it to have been no 
canine at all but a member of the bear family. 

Among the animals, the Cubeho had nothing with 
which to contend. His amiable "dog" was the biggest 
quadruped the aborigine knew. Even the maja snake, 
a big constrictor, is ferocious in appearance only, and 
he caught and ate it, as country Cubans do yet though 
they are becoming sensitive to confess it. Nature 
provided the aborigine with nothing to contest against 
to develop aggressive spirit. His one animate enemy 
was not recognized as more than an annoyance : the ant. 

The Cubenos were, therefore, not a warlike people; 
but no student of early chronicles gathers the impression 
that they were cowards. For possession of their coun- 
try and for the sanctity of their homes as they con- 
ceived it, — as soon as the far from celestial character 
and the intention of the Spaniards had been brought 
home to their comprehension, — these natives donned 
their red warpaint, their feather head-dresses and the 
frontal amulets which were their scapularies, nor 
hesitated to cross their wooden javelins with the same 
tempered Toledo steel which, brandished in Italy and 
in Flanders, won for the Spaniard of the period of 
Cuba's conquest and settlement, a martial reputation as 
the finest fighting man in Christendom. 

The Cubenos' spirit of hospitality, and their credu- 
lity, had, however, betrayed them. Excepting in those 
sections where they were enlightened by Haytian 



DISCOVERY (1492) 15 

refugees (with previous experience in La Espanola of 
the Christian character and purpose) the Cubenos re- 
ceived the first Spaniards who arrived among them as 
heavenly visitors, entreating them to remain in the 
villages they visited. Later, undeceived, the aborigines 
sought to resist the slavery to which the white man's 
supremacy especially in accoutrement readily reduced 
them. Failing to withstand it, they preferred death, 
and those who did not succumb to hard and continuous 
labor and lack of food, — conditions to which they were 
unaccustomed, — killed themselves by poison and by 
hanging, to escape the servitude which the Christians 
imposed. The women, rather than be slaves and be- 
come mothers of half-breed slaves, committed abortion 
and suicide. I am not relying for authority to make 
such statements as these upon the impassioned preach- 
ings of the good clerigo, Fray Bartolome de las Casas, 
but rather upon documents in the Sevillan archives, 
in the inditing of which that priest can have had no 
hand. They turn the blood cold. A people disappeared, 
not vanquished without the loss of a man in the single 
march of an expedition from Baracoa to Havana, as is 
usually supposed, but resisting to the end of a genera- 
tion that knew what freedom meant. 

This melting away of the native population was, 
as Bourne (Spain in America) has said, "the first 
appearance in modern times of a phenomenon of 
familiar occurrence in the later history of the contact 
of nature peoples with a ruling race." The eloquence 
of las Casas has made it the most familiar instance of 
the fatal consequences of such contact, and has be- 
stowed on Spaniards a reputation for cruelty which I, 
for one, would not deny that they deserve merely be- 



16 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

cause their cruelty was largely a passive disregard for 
human suffering, or because its disastrous effects were 
supplemented by those of imported diseases (small-pox 
and measles) to which the Cubehos had not the white 
man's degree of acquired immunity. 



CHAPTER II 

EXPLORATION AND OCCUPATION (1494-1513) 

"Santiago! Santiago!" * 

Columbus had no difficulty in recruiting for his 
second voyage to the New World which he proposed to 
undertake as soon as possible (1493). Before he 
approached Isabella and Ferdinand on the same matter, 
Columbus had appealed to the king of Portugal for 
means to cross "the Unknown Sea" west of Europe. 
The king of Portugal tricked him and finally declined 
to assist him, considering him a mad visionary, but now 
when this king heard that the madman had indeed 
found land by sailing west with an expedition fitted out 
by Spain, he was consumed with jealousy, alleged that 
what had been found lay within his jurisdiction, and 
began to fit out an expedition of his own to go take 
possession of it. This hastened the departure of the 
second Spanish fleet. When Columbus arrived at his 
destination, which was La Navidad on the north coast 
of Hayti, where he had left the first European settlers 
(if they may be called such) in all this western hem- 
isphere, he found all had died, some within a very few 
days preceding his arrival. That place seemed to him 
unpropitious for the establishment of a town, so he 
coasted back a little eastward and chose instead the 
site of the first permanent European settlement in the 
1 "Saint James!" This was the Spanish battle cry. 
17 



18 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

New World at La Isabella, so named in honor of his 
especial patroness, the Queen of Castile. He left the 
town in the labors of building and himself departed 
westward in late April, 1494, with three caravels to 
continue, as the event proved, his exploration of Cuba, 
which he believed, however, to be a great headland of 
the continent of Asia. He was moved in this by desire 
to discover as many more islands and as much more 
" mainland" as possible to forestall the jealous king of 
Portugal in possession and therefore in ultimate owner- 
ship. 

He approached Cuba in about the same locality from 
which he had left it in December of 1492, and from 
there he again coasted westward but this time he sailed 
along the southern shore of the island. He admired 
the marvellous ports he saw; among them was one he 
called Puerto Grande which was possibly Guantanamo, 
but I have seen nothing which suggests to me that 
Columbus entered the port which is now Santiago de 
Cuba. He admired the very high mountains which 
here do loom mightily from the water's edge, beautifully 
colored in russets and in greens; over their high tops the 
clouds roll, of afternoons, like ocean combers. Every- 
where the natives swarmed to welcome him, bringing 
him simple gifts in exchange for which they demanded 
nothing, but accepted when offered the trinkets with 
which the Spaniards came provided; these they prized 
as articles of divine origin. 

Columbus had with him natives he had taken from 
their homes in the Bahamas on his first voyage; pre- 
sumably they had learned enough Spanish in two years 
to deserve now the name of interpreters. Because they 
advised it he left the coast of Cuba on May 13th and 



EXPLORATION AND OCCUPATION (1494-1513) 19 

during the digression discovered Jamaica, of which he 
explored the north shore, returning to Cuba in the 
vicinity of Cape Cruz which he so named, on May 18th 
(1494). 

Now, as he continued along that coast, westward, he 
encountered heavy and constant rains: he was deluged 
every afternoon and evening and it annoyed him because 
of the type of vessel in which he sailed. In his way lay 
numberless islands, some of which were mere shoals 
under water, some were of bare sand, and some were 
cloaked with vegetation; they projected higher above 
water, and became greener and lovelier, the nearer they 
lay to the mainland of Cuba. They were of all sizes and 
were separated from one another by channels which the 
ships threaded among dangerous shallows; the vessels 
grounded time and again despite the utmost precautions 
the Admiral could take. Because he could not possibly 
provide a name for each islet Columbus called the collec- 
tion the Gardens of the Queen, as it is known to this 
day. Onward still he sailed, through tropical storms, 
among numberless keys; he touched the mainland of 
Cuba at his convenience and the natives welcomed him 
with food and with calabashes full of fresh water. He 
captured a native to serve him as guide and this man 
assured him that Cuba was an island. Nevertheless, 
on June 12th (1494), aboard the caravel Nina, Colum- 
bus had a notary draw up a document containing the 
solemn declaration of persons aboard each of his three 
vessels, among them being masters of navigation and 
famous pilots, — "the most famous he had known how 
to select from the great armada he had brought from 
Spain/' — that Cuba was a continent. 

Because sailing was dangerous, — 'long watches and 



20 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

worry had broken his own health, — 'and because sup- 
plies were becoming scarce, the Admiral decided to 
turn back to La Espanola. He had reached a point 
from which onward the coast of Cuba bent south: 
presumably he was north and a little west of the Isle 
of Pines, truly in a dangerous shallow sea to this day 
not properly charted. He had already sighted that 
Isle and named it The Evangelist. He landed on it 
on June 12th (1494), presumably on its northwest 
shore. Indications are that he sailed into Siguanea 
Bay while seeking a channel eastward; failing to find 
this he sailed out again on June 13th, landing where 
he had landed before and there taking on what water 
and provisions he could get. On June 25th he left 
the Isle, sailing away over water spotted green and 
white, and white only so that it looked curdled, and 
again inky, — variations which alarmed his mariners, 
exhausted and hungry as they were, even as to-day they 
delight the tourist a-sailing those summer seas. 

With every feeling of relief the expedition approached 
the east end of Cuba, sniffing with delighted recogni- 
tion the fragrance it exhaled. On July 7th the Admiral 
went ashore to hear mass. He regained Cape Cruz on 
the 18th, where the natives brought the Spaniards of 
their bread, fish and fruits, so that they were pleased 
to rest there, recuperating through some days. On 
Tuesday, July 22nd, Columbus cleared from Cuba for 
La Espanola where eventually he arrived. 

The Admiral saw Cuba but once again, in June, 
probably, of 1503, when, limping home from his fourth, 
a most disastrous voyage, he approached this island 
in the vicinity of Trinidad, coasted eastward to Cape 
Cruz and from there crossed to Jamaica. 



EXPLORATION AND OCCUPATION (1494-1513) 21 

In recognition of his very great services as discoverer 
Columbus (as he had stipulated before he undertook 
his voyages) was made representative of Spanish au- 
thority in the New World; he was not, however, suc- 
cessful in exercising it and was succeeded by Francisco 
de Bobadilla who in his turn was succeeded by Fray 
Nicolas de Ovando in 1501. Meanwhile the current 
of exploration and of interest had taken a south- 
westerly course, setting strongly toward the Isthmus 
of Darien. To accommodate traffic and because the 
location was in itself preferable, the city of Santo 
Domingo was founded on the south coast of La Es- 
panola (Hayti), and it immediately superseded La 
Isabella in importance. 

More than one ship sailing between Santo Domingo 
and struggling settlements on the north coast of South 
America and close by the isthmus, was blown out of 
its course and wrecked on Cuba. Survivors of these 
disasters made their way along the south coast of the 
island and on arrival in Santo Domingo in recounting 
their hardships they seem to have given out the im- 
pression that Cuba was all swamp! It is possible, 
too, that parties pursuing runaway Haytians into 
Cuba had brought back varying accounts of what lay 
across the narrow waters which divide these two islands. 

Whether Cuba was an island or whether it was part 
of a continent, seems for a decade after Columbus' 
second visit not to have been generally known, although 
la Cosa's map dated 1500 (?) and Cantino's as well 
show it to be an island, and Peter Martyr said in these 
years that " there are not lacking those who dare de- 
clare they have circumnavigated it." By 1508 the 
Commendador Ovando entertained a desire to deter- 



22 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

mine whether these persons or Columbus' pilots were 
right. The king forbade him to spend money in such 
investigation. Yet las Casas in his history states that 
Sebastian de Ocampo, commissioned by Ovando to do 
so, did circumnavigate Cuba and that on his return to 
Santo Domingo in the fall of 1508 he reported it to 
be an island peopled by natives who were kindly dis- 
posed toward the Spaniards. Personally, I have seen 
no documents relating to this voyage of Ocampo's; 
I incline to believe nevertheless that it was made. 

It is a perhaps not unrelated fact that by 1509 the 
king of Spain had become keenly interested to know 
whether or not there was gold in Cuba. Indeed, he 
seems to have entertained suspicion that it was a 
treasure cache which his most eminent servants were 
plotting to loot in secret: when he learned that Diego 
Colon, Columbus' son, then royal governor in Santo 
Domingo succeeding Ovando, planned to despatch his 
uncle, the Adelantado Bartolome Colon, to Cuba, — • 
a project for which he had no authority, and on which 
he did not make timely report, — -the king's interest 
grew keener yet; he summoned the Adelantado to 
Spain, precisely, it would seem, to prevent his leading 
any expedition into Cuba, and he exerted himself to 
keep informed through more than one channel. He 
(May, 1509) urged his agents in La Espafiola, — Diego 
Colon, Bartolome Colon, and the treasurer Miguel de 
Pasamonte, — to ascertain if there was gold in the island. 
It seems to have been Ferdinand's idea to send out a 
prospecting party to determine the fact as to this. 

Having had since 1492 ample opportunity to ob- 
serve that it was not only a spiritual, but also an 
economic error, to hostilize the natives of gold-bearing 



EXPLORATION AND OCCUPATION (1494-1513) 23 

regions, the king had a double reason to wish to keep 
those of Cuba in the friendly humor toward the Span- 
iards which they had exhibited to Columbus, and more 
recently to Ocampo perhaps. He insisted that kind- 
ness to the Cubeiios must be the policy of the expedi- 
tion which went to Cuba in response to the royal order 
to investigate its mineral potentialities. 

This expedition may have cleared from La Espanola 
very late in 1510; if as is generally accepted, however, 
it did not get off until 1511, it must have gone early in 
that year. It was commanded by Diego de Velazquez. 

Velazquez had distinguished himself in La Espanola 
since his arrival with Columbus in 1493. He had 
served satisfactorily under three successive governors. 
Ovando had commissioned him to quiet a rebellious 
district in the west of that island over five settlements 
of which when he had mastered it and founded them, 
Velazquez became lieutenant of the governor. Velaz- 
quez had acquired wealth : he was reckoned the richest 
man in La Espanola. By the Spaniards who served 
under him he was admired because of his fine figure, 
fattening then but still handsome, and because of his 
graceful presence, his fair face and blonde hair; they 
liked him for his amiability and for his style of conver- 
sation (on topics appreciated by young men not overly 
well disciplined). They respected him because when 
occasion demanded he could demonstrate his authority. 
He was, in fine, a man well equipped by character, 
experience and fortune, for further leadership. 

He can have had little difficulty in fitting out the 
expedition to conduct which into Cuba he had been 
selected, presumably by Governor Colon, who, however, 
must have been strongly influenced (consciously or 



24 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

unconsciously) in his choice, for Velazquez was, or else 
immediately became, a close friend of the treasurer 
Miguel de Pasamonte who contributed notably to the 
very favorable reputation by which Velazquez began 
soon indeed to profit at court. In fact, Velazquez 
may have been more Pasamonte's creature than he 
was Colon's. Pasamonte had held high office before 
he came to the New World; he had been queen's secre- 
tary and Spanish ambassador abroad. He was very 
powerful indeed in La Espanola and he was no friend 
to Colon. It was suspected that Velazquez made their 
friendship a source of material profit to Pasamonte 
who possibly shared whatever real profits accrued with 
the royal secretary Conchillos. I have not seen Velaz- 
quez's commission nor is it, I think, known to exist; 
information as to its stipulations would be a contribu- 
tion of note to the recorded history of Cuba. Neither 
have I seen any documents from which any proof may 
be gathered of the relations existing between Conchillos, 
Pasamonte and Velazquez. Contemporaries gossiped 
concerning them and the fact stands out that through 
Pasamonte Velazquez early established direct communi- 
cation with the crown and from the first enjoyed sur- 
prising independence of the admiral, Colon, in whose 
name, however, he held his title as teniente de gobernador 
in Cuba. This title is correctly translated governor's 
lieutenant; in usage of the time Velazquez was called 
governor. The king's suspicions as to the Colons' inten- 
tions with respect to Cuba may have contributed to 
determine his very favorable attitude toward Velazquez. 
It is not beyond the possibilities of the period that these 
suspicions were generated precisely to that end by the 
very persons who profited by that favoritism. 



EXPLORATION AND OCCUPATION (1494-1513) 25 

Velazquez was further aided in preparing his expedi- 
tion by the royal accountant in La Espahola, his 
cousin Cristobal de Cuellar. It is probable that Velaz- 
quez was already affianced to his daughter, Doha 
Maria de Cuellar, who came to the New World a lady- 
in-waiting on Doha Maria de Toledo, wife of the ad- 
miral Diego Colon. Despite this detail which presum- 
ably indicates friendship between the ladies, Cuellar 
was not a friend of Colon's. 

Velazquez seems to have spent his own money freely 
on the three or four ships he assembled at Salvatierra 
de la Sabana in the far west of La Espahola, convenient 
to Cuba, where he recruited possibly three hundred 
men. Colon promised that the crown would refund 
these expenditures, instructive evidence, I should say, 
of his friendliness toward the undertakings of the men 
(Velazquez, Cuellar and Pasamonte) whom documents 
show to have been much less well-inclined toward him. 
The king ratified this promise but no indication that 
he kept it has come to my notice. He did, however, 
presently place in Velazquez' hands means of reim- 
bursing himself at the expense of the aborigines of 
Cuba for all his exertions and his outlay. 

During the years immediately preceding the de- 
parture of Velazquez' expedition into Cuba, many 
Haytians escaping bondage which the Spaniards had 
imposed upon them in La Espahola, had made their 
way into this island, especially into the eastern part 
which was readily accessible to them. They enlight- 
ened the Cubehos concerning the character and the 
conduct of the Christians as they had by hard experi- 
ence found them to be. Among these fugitives was the 
cacique of a western province of La Espahola, — the 



26 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

very region which had reason to understand Velazquez 
best, — whose name was Hatuey (or Inhatuey). Ac- 
companied by many of his subjects he had fled into 
eastern Cuba and was there established as a chieftain 
of importance when Velazquez began to recruit his 
expedition. Las Casas says that Hatuey was informed 
by spies of the Spaniards' activities and of their object. 
Immediately he commenced to incite the Cubenos to 
resistance, maddening them with relation of what the 
Haytians had endured, — outrage, slaughter and slav- 
ery, — 'Confidently assuring them that a similar fate 
awaited them unless the white invaders were success- 
fully repulsed. 

As a result of Hatuey's propaganda, it would appear, 
Cuba showed itself hostile to Velazquez and his men. 
They found themselves involved soon after their landing 
in an active campaign against the natives whom they 
hunted into the mountains. Hatuey was betrayed into 
their hands and was burned at the stake, to the last 
refusing all consolations of their church, which the 
Spaniards offered him, lest on dying he go to their 
heaven only to find Christians there! Hatuey's 
death did not end the struggle: a follower and fellow- 
countryman of his named Caguax assumed leadership 
of the Cubenos. 

Velazquez established his base of operations at 
Baracoa and in so doing made the first permanent 
settlement in Cuba. He called the place Nuestra 
Sefiora de la Asuncion, but it is the aboriginal name, 
Baracoa, which has persisted as that of the oldest city 
in the island, the first capital. 

Velazquez built a fort. Its site can hardly be deter- 
mined now since it collapsed a very few years later. 



EXPLORATION AND OCCUPATION (1494-1513) 27 

Other necessary buildings were erected, all unques- 
tionably of the very humblest sort, — "of straw" the 
Spaniards described them, meaning, of course, bohios 
of bamboo or possibly of palm board reinforced with 
adobe, and thatched with palm leaves. Their surround- 
ings must have been much as are Baracoa's to-day. 
The bay there is round and perfect as the illustration of 
that word in a primary geography. Outside, the mar- 
vellous blue of the ocean breaks into white along the 
coast. Hills are to landward, all thickly cloaked with 
dark green; their valleys are tangled jungles. To this 
day no roads prevail against the riotous vegetation. 
Except as horsemen and pack-trains thread the trails 
of the hinterland, Baracoa is even yet inaccessible ex- 
cept by sea. The region is not now reputed to be pro- 
ductive of gold, but Velazquez' followers, panning its 
rivers by proxy, got interesting returns and a generation 
after them revived lost interest in its mines. 

Shortly after he had established himself at Baracoa, 
Velazquez was joined by thirty expert crossbowmen 
who arrived from Jamaica, where they had served 
under that island's first governor, Esquivel. They 
came accompanied by native Jamaican servants and 
under the leadership of Panfilo de Narvaez. This 
young man, — tall and blonde, not to say red-headed, 
honorable, intelligent, a pleasant conversationalist, 
quick to fight (either aborigines or others), but a care- 
less leader, — was a native of Valladolid in Spain which 
is near Velazquez' former home, Cuellar. He was de- 
voted to Velazquez. Velazquez welcomed him to his 
service and made him his second in command in Cuba. 

He sent him out from Baracoa presently at the head 
of a force consisting of a hundred infantry and eight 



28 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

mounted men. This force, moving west from Baracoa, 
penetrated a rich region the Spaniards called by the 
aboriginal name of Bayamo: it was the same general 
district still so designated. Narvaez reported the atti- 
tude of the natives to be menacing and Velazquez sent 
him reinforcements of fifty men, ten of them mounted. 

Velazquez, repeating possibly the wording of his own 
commission, — certainly at least reflecting the king's 
notion of what this first expedition into Cuba should 
be, — had especially instructed Narvaez to assure the 
natives that his object on this march was only to see 
the country, to inform them of the allegiance they owed 
to the crown of Spain, and he was to impress upon the 
Cubenos the Christians' good intentions not to injure 
but to convert them. Thus was the actual conquest 
of Cuba undertaken in perfect accordance with great 
policies which, emanating from Castile but especially 
now from Aragon, were felt at the time in every Euro- 
pean court from the Golden Horn to the Pillars of 
Hercules. In the antipodes an obscure governor's 
lieutenant's lieutenant, hacking his way through a 
primeval jungle, stepped forward in exact measure 
with the greatness, and with the smallness, of "the 
Catholic Kings," for these beneficent anxieties lest the 
natives of Cuba be alarmed arose directly out of Fer- 
dinand's sordid rapacity, — he was less tender of ab- 
origines where no gold was to be expected; the demand 
for confessed allegiance explains itself, and the inten- 
tion to convert was Isabella's political policy of effective 
union, in "the faith," via obliteration of all racial dis- 
tinctions. 

Between the letter of Narvaez's instructions and his 
execution of them there was the usual discrepancy. 



EXPLORATION AND OCCUPATION (1494-1513) 29 

The further inland the Spaniards advanced, the more 
unwelcome the Cubehos made them. For instance, one 
night while they slept soundly in a certain village, a 
multitude of natives attacked with a sudden yell, which 
brought the Christians out of their dreams but not 
completely to their senses. Fortunately for them the 
Cubehos were more anxious to seize their clothes, — 
treasures greatly coveted by the naked savages, — than 
they were to kill the owners. Narvaez was hit in the 
pit of the stomach by a stone which bowled him over; 
he arose, however, and now thoroughly awake, saddled 
his lively mare which had been sharing his sleeping 
quarters with him, threw a string of bells across the 
beast, mounted, and so, — clad only in his shirt, — he 
rode forth, charging pell-mell through the village, 
spreading terror among the natives to whom the horse 
was an unearthly monster and the jingle of bells a 
strange infernal sound. Presently Narvaez reported 
that he had been unable to observe the orders he had to 
avoid fighting the natives; he informed Velazquez that 
he had fallen into an ambush in getting out of which he 
had killed "a hundred" and thereby brought, he said, 
the whole district of Bayamo into tranquil service of the 
king of Spain. He had not, nevertheless, been so 
successful in accomplishing this, but Velazquez found 
it necessary to go himself into Bayamo along the route 
Narvaez had taken, to "reassure" the natives in his 
own fashion. While so busied he sent Narvaez and his 
men in pursuit of those Cubenos who with their families 
and their trifling possessions had fled westward into 
that portion of Cuba then, as now, called Camaguey. 
Wherever he went Narvaez spread terror. 

Caguax was killed. The natives were left not only 



30 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

leaderless but hungry. Owing to disturbed conditions 
and to dry weather, those of the Bayamo district had 
neglected their crops. Because the climate prevented 
safe storage it was not the custom of the Cubehos to lay 
up any reserve supplies. The natives of Camaguey had 
only enough food stuffs for their own maintenance : they 
did not welcome panicky immigrants from Bayamo, for 
they foresaw famine. Narvaez returned to Bayamo 
from his campaign westward and presently the natives 
of that region began to reappear in the homes they had 
deserted; in token of submission they brought him 
presents of the bone necklaces which they prized. 

When he arrived in Bayamo, Narvaez found that 
Velazquez had returned to Baracoa, leaving in tem- 
porary charge at Bayamo his nephew, "a beardless 
youth" named Juan de Grijalva, and with Grijalva 
as adviser a priest called Bartolome de las Casas, the 
good clerigo. This is the man whom posterity honors as 
"The Protector of the Indians," whose fanatical cham- 
pion he became, and as the author of a History of the 
Indies, which is one of the best sources of information 
extant concerning the earliest Spanish activity in the 
New World, especially in the matter of the conquest of 
Cuba, large part of which las Casas was. 

Over these two and the men with them Narvaez 
assumed command. At the head of the considerable 
party which these and his own hundred and fifty men 
formed, he now pressed forward in westerly direction 
through Cuba, frankly seeking gold. 

They found it and sent Velazquez samples. He, for 
his part, forwarded the precious metal as fast as ob- 
tained toward the king who expressed himself as de- 
lighted at the prospect it opened and suggested the 



EXPLORATION AND OCCUPATION (1494-1513) 31 

despatch from La Espafiola of trained and skilful 
miners under some person who might be relied upon to 
tolerate no deception such as had been attempted at 
Trinidad where those who found gold denied it in hopes 
to augment their share of such profits. It would be 
impossible to identify the vicinities in Cuba where this 
gold was found were it not known that it was the loca- 
tion of the mines discovered which decided the situa- 
tion, near them, of the cities Velazquez founded in this 
and in the following few years. 

From Bayamo Narvaez seems to have returned to 
Camaguey; his exact route cannot be proven. He 
passed through a village las Casas calls Cueyba, where 
the Spaniards saw the natives worshipping an image of 
the Virgin Mary which castaway countrymen of theirs 
had left there some two years before; it has been 
assumed that this image was that same which is still 
adored at her shrine in eastern Cuba as Our Lady of 
Cobre. The Cubehos sang and danced before her in 
their own style of expressing devotion. They kept her 
little oratory clean and decorated, and spirited her 
away from the place when the good clerigo suggested 
they exchange her with him for an image he carried. 

The people of Camaguey prepared bread, meat and 
fish in advance for the invaders, in all the villages where 
they were expected. To avoid conflicts, — the lustfulness 
of the Spaniards was resented by the Cubehos, — las 
Casas the priest, with a few of his immediate following, 
preceded the main body of Spaniards into the towns; 
he had the natives vacate half of each village, which 
was then given over to the Christians while they stayed. 
The natives wefe supposed to keep to the other half. 
Later las Casas merely advanced messengers carrying 



32 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

a piece of paper on a stick, to command the natives to 
arrange accommodations in this manner, and to prepare 
their children for baptism on penalty of the good 
clerigo's displeasure, a mandate which was obeyed for 
they loved and reverenced him and feared and respected 
his letters which seemed to them to work wonders 
since they conveyed his meaning over distance between 
him and his kind. The " miracle" of writing was be- 
yond their comprehension; "they marvelled at it." 

Las Casas did not, however, invariably succeed in 
preventing trouble. He relates, for instance, how 
toward noon on a certain day as they rested in the bed 
of a creek the Christians nicely sharpened their swords 
on some suitable stones. That afternoon they crossed 
a plain where they suffered somewhat from thirst; the 
natives came out with calabashes of water, and food. 
Toward nightfall the Christians arrived at a large 
village called Caonao where plenty of cazabe bread had 
been prepared with a great supply of fish, for there was 
a river near, and the sea. Two thousand natives, 
according to the clerigo's account (he is to be mistrusted 
in his estimates of numbers), gathered in the village 
square, squatted on their heels, staring amazed at the 
horses the Spaniards had. Five hundred more, he says, 
were shut up in a great house close by; when the native 
servants of the Spaniards, whose camp-followers num- 
bered a thousand, the historian remarks, sought to 
enter there those within offered them fowls to bribe 
them to stay out. While the Spaniards whom Narvaez 
had assigned to that duty were doling out the evening's 
rations, and the priest las Casas was watching this done, 
a certain Spaniard who, he says, they thought must 
have been possessed of a devil, drew his sword and in a 



EXPLORATION AND OCCUPATION (1494-1513) 33 

trice the Christians were busy, slashing, disembowelling, 
slaughtering the naked multitude which a moment 
before had squatted there, admiring their steeds. They 
entered the great hut and continued the massacre until 
it ran blood like a shambles. Las Casas and five men 
were in the square where forty Indians who had carried 
the Christians' luggage were resting; the five, on hearing 
the clash of steel and cries, houses aroundabout pre- 
venting them from seeing what was transpiring else- 
where, were for killing those forty where they huddled, 
but the priest succeeded in dissuading them from doing 
this. They spared those forty "and went off to kill 
where the others were killing." Las Casas came up to 
Captain Narvaez, mounted on his mare; the dead lay 
all around. "What does your reverence think of this 
that our Spaniards have done?" inquired Narvaez, 
"and the clerigo, seeing before him so many cut to 
pieces," was, he admitted, carried away by anger so 
that he answered: "You and them all I offer to the 
devil!" "For Narvaez, from his horse, had seen all 
that occurred nor raised his pike to prevent the holo- 
caust." From him the priest turned away and went 
from place to place after the Spaniards trying to deter 
them from killing the natives they were hunting down 
in the adjacent bush. Entering the big hut he told the 
Cubenos hidden in the rafters to come down since the 
slaughter was over, and one who came down weeping, 
"a young man of twenty-five or thirty, well set up," 
was presently disembowelled by a soldier, las Casas 
having passed on in his work of mercy; this young man, 
holding his entrails in his hands, rushed out of the hut 
and met the priest, who recognized him and offered him 
all the consolation that he could offer: religion, which 



34 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

the unhappy creature accepted as he fell dead. An- 
other, "they even said he was the brother of the king 
or chief of that province, — old, well-built, patrician in 
aspect," — sat back against a tree, half of his body from 
shoulder to waist lying on the ground beside him, 
severed by a single blow of a Spanish sword, and there 
he remained, living at the end of a week, when the 
Spaniards marched away leaving Caonao soaked in 
blood. "Of all which," las Casas says in closing his 
relation of it, "I am a witness, for I was there and I 
saw it, and I omit many details for brevity's sake." 
The Spaniards, proceeding westward from Caonao, 
found the country deserted: "no suckling nor chirping 
thing remained, the massacre being known." The 
natives abandoned the island itself, seeking safety on 
the little keys along the shore! 

Las Casas labored to reassure them and presently 
they came back, "men and women like sheep, each 
with his little bundle of poverty upon his back," and 
with gifts for the Christians. "To see them come 
caused joy for they were returning to their homes, 
which was what was wanted, and it caused pity and 
great compassion, considering their meekness, humility, 
poverty, what they had suffered, their banishment, 
their weariness, brought upon them through no fault 
of theirs, the slaughter of their fathers, sons, brothers 
and neighbors, so cruelly accomplished, — all, all being 
set aside as done with and forgotten." 

The Spaniards now established themselves at a point 
on the north coast where they found gold. They made 
themselves at home in a native village built on piles 
over water, and there they were so well fed on parrots 
and other delicacies that they corrupted the native name 



EXPLORATION AND OCCUPATION (1494-1513) 35 

of the district to Casaharta (house replete); a further 
corruption or perhaps a correction of the corruption 
seems to persist yet in the name Carahatas of a vicinity 
near Sagua in the modern province of Santa Clara. 

Previous to this time Narvaez had heard that a man 
and two women, survivors of some wrecked caravel, 
were held prisoners by the natives of regions still further 
west. He informed Velazquez of this and Velazquez 
from Baracoa sent a light-draft well-provisioned brig- 
antine west along the coast. Overland a courier came 
with orders to Narvaez to leave men at work where 
gold had been found, to endeavor to get possession of 
the man and the women, and to keep watch for the 
brigantine. Father las Casas sent messengers with his 
magic papers on sticks into the west and the two women 
presented themselves, having been released by their 
captors. They were naked as Eve, so the priest made 
them clothes of cloaks the Spaniards gave up for the 
purpose, and promptly married them off to two willing 
members of the expedition. 

These women told of seeing the natives wash gold 
out of a stream and beat it into guanines, as the natives' 
trinkets were called. To find this stream the whole 
expedition now moved on, from Casaharta into the 
aboriginal Havana province, which seems to have been 
approximately the same territory Habana province is 
to-day. They travelled in canoes by sea and overland 
on foot and horse when it was rough on the water. 

They found the district deserted, and lacking guides 
they made no headway. They sought the natives, who 
seemed to have vanished, and las Casas sent reassuring 
messages ahead. Presently they encountered a chief 
who the two women said they recognized as one who 



36 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

had drowned companions of theirs treacherously. The 
Spaniards suspected him of plotting a like fate for 
them and of having placed his men in ambush to make 
sure of finishing them off. They took him and his 
party prisoners and were for burning them at the stake, 
but it seems that las Casas protested vigorously and 
eventually they released all except the chief himself 
whom they kept in chains for the time being. At all 
events, they got on and came to the stream of which 
the women had told them. Here they found some little 
gold, — enough at least to create hope that more existed. 

Another chief now came forth to welcome them with 
presents; and he delivered to them the Spaniard of 
whom they had been hearing, — one Garcia Mexia. He 
had almost forgotten the Spanish language; he squatted 
on his heels and gesticulated like a native to the very 
great amusement of his compatriots. He and the two 
women were all that were left of a party of twenty-seven 
castaways from a ship wrecked on the far west end 
of Cuba as it sought Santo Domingo from Alonso de 
Hojeda's starved settlement of San Sebastian at Uraba. 
Their number had diminished as they struggled east- 
ward; some a certain chief hung and others were 
drowned by natives who enticed them into canoes on 
pretence of ferrying them over an arm of the sea which 
may have been Matanzas Bay. That name means 
" slaughter" and it may commemorate their massacre 
there. 

Meanwhile the brigantine which Velazquez had sent 
west from Baracoa arrived off the north coast of Ha- 
vana, and Narvaez and his men hailed it into the port 
where they lay encamped waiting for it. It remained 
there while they, acting on Velazquez's orders, went to 



EXPLORATION AND OCCUPATION (1494-1513) 37 

meet him and another party he led at a rendezvous he 
had appointed, — the port of Xagua now called Cien- 
fuegos, — at the time, — Christmas of 1513, — which he 
had set. 

After the Christmas holidays had been spent at 
Xagua and near there, Velazquez sent Narvaez and a 
hundred men back to Havana. Sixty of Narvaez's 
men marched by land (from Xagua), reconnoitring and 
treating with the native chiefs. Narvaez had taken 
to Xagua with him that cacique who was charged with 
drowning Hojeda's castaways; Velazquez reproved him 
for his treachery, but gave him gifts and returned him to 
his own territory where, Velazquez said later, he brought 
his people into their towns to dwell as they had dwelt 
before the advent of Christians. Later under Narvaez 
himself the Spaniards pushed further west than they 
had gone before, evidently obeying Velazquez's instruc- 
tions to explore with the cooperation of the brigantine 
which awaited their return; they penetrated presumably 
well into what is now Pinar del Rio province. I have 
found no account of this incursion. It completed the 
occupation of Cuba. 



CHAPTER III 

"the pestilence of the repaetemiexto " 

" Por esto fue conquistador e a su costo gand para su magestad 
la isla e tenia provision de su magestad para dar los indios 
a quien el quisiere." — Pero Perez, A de I, 47, 2, 8/3. 

In La Espanola before the conquest of Cuba began 
there had taken definite form a peculiar system of 
bondage of the native to the invader known as the 
repartimiento. The word means a permanent dividing 
up, — a portioning out of the aborigines to the service 
of the Spaniards. Encomienda is used as a synonym 
although this word carries the idea of temporary 
''commendation/' i. e., a ter m inable tutelage. The 
theory of the repartimiento was beneficent. To gentle 
Christian masters who were to instruct them in the 
faith and to feed, clothe and house them also, while 
training them to do useful work, were "commended" 
gentler Cubeno servitors who were thus to be civilized 
on earth and saved hi heaven. That the Spanish 
master profited by the work which his commended 
natives did, was a matter of course. His too was the 
responsibility, to his God and to his king, for the welfare 
here and hereafter of the souls and of the bodies so 
co mmi tted to him. 

The theory of the repartimiento was indeed beneficent, 
but in practice the system was slavery: slavery of the 
untutored, hungry, naked, shelterless native, worked 

38 



"THE PESTILENCE OF THE REPARTIMIENTO " 39 

to his death like a valueless beast of the field by masters 
of whom neither their conscience nor the law ever de- 
manded any adequate accounting. This grievous con- 
flict between the theory and the practice of the system 
was never reconciled except in the elimination of the 
natives who were ground out of existence between the 
mill stones of the high Castilian ideal of justice and the 
remorseless interpretation of it by individual Spaniards. 
Amazing contrasts such as this between admirable 
ideals embodied in excellent laws, and reprehensible 
execution of them have always been, as Hume says, 
a peculiar feature of Spain and of her settlements. The 
contradiction however may not be damned as simon- 
pure hypocrisy. If analyzed it can be otherwise ex- 
plained. 

It was with every intention to obtain control and 
service of natives under the repartimiento system in 
order to use them to gather gold, that the Spanish 
swarmed into Cuba in 1512-13, almost emptying La 
Espanola, just as later they swarmed over Cuba and 
on, into Mexico and into Peru, leaving this island in 
its turn almost depopulated of whites. 

Velazquez found himself in a serious dilemma, because 
he had no authority to " commend" the Cubenos to his 
followers; his men insisted they must have encomiendas 
(i. e., such allotments, — assignments of natives), espe- 
cially those of the expedition who remained at Baracoa 
(summer of 1512) engaged in the unromantic drudgery 
of building up a town while Narvaez fared blithely forth 
to shed blood and perhaps to find more gold than they 
were finding, and Velazquez himself got his share of 
action in following after Narvaez to "pacify" the region 
around Bayamo when it vigorously resented Narvaez 's 



40 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

performances. They threatened to abandon his dull 
camp at Baracoa and to leave the island, returning to 
La Espahola whence they had come with anticipations 
of pleasanter things. 

The head of early discontent, because of Velazquez's 
disability to assign the Cubefios to servitude under the 
repartimiento system, was Francisco Morales, who, it 
appears, did actually capture and use the natives of the 
Maniabon (Manzanillo?) district over which Velazquez 
had made him lieutenant. They revolted against him 
and some Christians were killed. In his conflict with 
Morales the king vigorously upheld Velazquez, as was 
but logical inasmuch as his difficulties seem to have 
arisen largely from too close obedience of royal com- 
mands. Admiral Colon was ordered to authorize 
Velazquez to proceed against Morales with all rigor, 
that his sentence might be a memorable example to 
Cuba, documents containing such authorization to be 
delivered by the admiral to Pasamonte for despatch. 
At the same time, lest the admiral overlook the matter, 
the king issued a communication to Velazquez direct 
to this same effect, which Pasamonte was to instruct 
him to use if necessary, — so great independence had 
the governor's lieutenant in Cuba already attained! 
It seems, however, that Velazquez shipped Morales to 
La Espanola to be dealt with by the authorities there. 

Morales' partisans who remained at Baracoa sought 
to get their complaints heard in Santo Domingo; their 
emissary was to be Velazquez's own secretary, Her- 
nando Cortes, the man in whose future lay the con- 
quest of Mexico. Velazquez discovered his disloyalty, 
imprisoned and was inclined to hang him, but friends 
interceded and Velazquez not only pardoned him but 



"THE PESTILENCE OF THE REPARTIMIENTO " 41 

also later showed him small favors which were high 
honors to one in the very humble station Cortes at this 
time occupied It was in these days, at Baracoa, that 
Cortes somewhat reluctantly married Catalina Xuares, 
his first wife, and here too he laid the small beginning 
of his amazing fortune in that he sweated a few thou- 
sand pesos in gold out of the natives who presently fell 
to his lot. 

It was to forestall recrudescence of disorder such as 
Morales had occasioned, — to prevent his men from 
leaving the island or else seizing what he could not 
provide without defying the letter of the king's express 
commands, — that Velazquez hurried back to Baracoa 
from Bayamo at the time that he left Juan de Grijalva 
with las Casas as his adviser to await the return of 
Narvaez from Camaguey. 

Moreover, Velazquez had word that a brigantine 
had put in at Baracoa from La Espanola aboard which 
was Cristobal de Cuellar, appointed to be the king's 
treasurer in the island of Cuba; he was so chosen out of 
consideration for money he spent in helping to equip 
the expedition which had taken possession of the coun- 
try. His colleagues in office, — accountant and factor, — 
appeared later to complete a trio of royal officials such 
as existed in Santo Domingo. 

Cuellar's daughter, Dona Maria, accompanied him 
and she and Velazquez were married at Baracoa (early 
in 1513) with all the pomp the nascent settlement could 
display; but the following Saturday Velazquez found 
himself a widower. " Sadness and mourning were twice 
what the rejoicing had been. It seemed God desired 
that lady for Himself, for they say that she was most 
virtuous, and by untimely death He saved her perhaps 



42 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

from time and prosperity which might have altered her 
admirable character." 

Discovering no other way out of his dilemma, 
Velazquez now determined to give Cubefios to the men 
under him; but still lacking any real authority to do so, 
he sought to protect himself against royal displeasure, 
if this should be aroused, by the appearance of the 
manner in which he assigned them. As in La Espafiola 
the repartimiento system was timid in its beginning 
in Cuba. 

Velazquez assigned the Cubefios to the service of the 
Spaniards for one month, only, for which period of labor 
they were to be paid; at the end of it they were to be 
dismissed and permitted to return to their homes. He 
sent his men out in parties of twenty, each with an inter- 
preter, to bring the natives in, especially from the Maysi 
district which might most readily be adjudged to have 
forfeited favor, because of Hatuey's " rebellion." When 
the natives came in, in obedience to such imperative 
summons, Velazquez said he kept the people of each 
village together. He commanded that the Cubefios 
be well treated, named inspectors to see that they were 
so, and himself made rounds of supervision over all. 
At the end of the month, he declared, the Cubefios were 
paid off, "as in La Espafiola," given food for their 
journey home, and let to go. 

It must be borne in mind that Velazquez's account 
of this matter, from which I am writing, was intended 
for the eye of the king, without whose authority Velaz- 
quez had been constrained to act, — 'that king who had 
repeatedly commanded that the Cubefios be treated 
with less rigor than the Haytians and the Porto Ricans 
had been, not only for the reason that he gave, — 'that 



"THE PESTILENCE OF THE REPARTIMIENTO " 43 

he held them in particular esteem and desired above 
all things to convert them to the faith for which Velaz- 
quez himself had reported that they showed exceptional 
aptitude, — 'but also for the even more obvious reason 
that if hostilized and decimated they would not and 
could not produce as much gold as might be expected 
of them if well managed and well conserved. It is 
quite possible that in point of fact not all those natives 
whom Velazquez's scouting parties had brought into 
Baracoa for that initial month's service did return, 
"very happy," as he put it, to their palm-thatched 
distant huts; for he adds that the Spaniards were 
"satisfied and lost the ill-will they had," which would 
hardly have been their state of mind had they been 
obliged to see all their workmen go at the end of that 
brief period, accustomed as they had already become 
in La Espanola to the more permanent advantages of 
indefinite repartimiento. 

During this month Velazquez not only washed for 
gold but he planted food-crops. Nothing is more in- 
dicative of Velazquez's innate ability than this: he 
had foresight such as no other conquistador under simi- 
lar circumstances (on the Isthmus of Darien, for in- 
stance) had developed it, to plant early that he and 
his men might have enough to eat. He planted indige- 
nous crops: the natives understood their cultivation and 
the Spaniards were already accustomed to eat them, — ■ 
yuca to make cazabe bread, maize, malangas, boniatos, 
squash, — the crops, in short, which to this day sustain 
the rural population of Cuba. The king ordered ex- 
periments in the cultivation of rice. 

Houses for the Spaniards' permanent habitation 
were erected. All pretence that they did not expect 



44 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

to remain was, apparently, dropped. Married men 
sent for their wives; when it was reported to him that 
difficulties were laid in the way of the women who 
desired to follow their husbands from La Espafiola 
into Cuba, the king reprimanded Admiral Colon and 
expressed a wish at variance with his earlier views that 
Velazquez's expedition should be considered a prospect- 
ing party only, for he now desired the Spanish settle- 
ment in Cuba to become permanent in the establish- 
ment of families there. Marriages between Spaniards 
and natives were legal. 

Among the buildings which Velazquez erected was 
a warehouse to shelter the king's share of the proceeds 
from the country; and he cared for the king's estate, laid 
out on the river bank "where Hatuey had resided." 
Ferdinand had his personal interest in all the lines of 
exploitation undertaken, and so too, unfortunately 
for the Cubehos, had all his ministers and agents from 
highest to humblest. The king expected his estates 
to be models in remunerativeness by which the rest 
might pattern, and yet as early as 1521 he was informed 
that his encomiendas were unprofitable and advised 
to distribute most of them among the colonists. 

These things done and affairs in the village settled 
into good order, Velazquez set out on October 4, 1513, 
for Xagua (Cienfuegos) where he had ordered Narvaez 
and all his party not engaged in gold mining to meet 
him at Christmas time. He was informed that Sebas- 
tian de Ocampo, now a trader, had left at Xagua four 
Spaniards and three casks of wine, when en route to 
Santo Domingo from Castilla del Oro on what was 
perhaps his last voyage. 

Velazquez stopped by the way (November, 1513) 



"THE PESTILENCE OF THE REPARTIMIENTO " 45 

to found what has since become the city of Bayamo. 
The original site, which he selected because of the 
land's fertility and the general adaptability of the 
district to crops and cattle, was within a league and a 
half of the present-day south-coast port of Manzanillo. 
It was beside the River Yara and he called the place 
San Salvador because it was near there that the Chris- 
tians were " saved" from the cacique Hatuey. The 
location so chosen for the second city in Cuba was not, 
be it observed, the present site of Bayamo; and there- 
fore the interesting ceiha tree across the bending River 
Cauto from the present town which the inhabitants 
are fond of pointing out to tourists can hardly be the 
very tree beside which that brave Haytian met martyr- 
dom. 

Again as at Baracoa Velazquez sent his men out 
to bring in natives and these he portioned out to labor. 
For the Christians they built a church and they culti- 
vated crops for them and for their king. — 

While he was so busied at Bayamo Velazquez re- 
ceived letters from the king addressed to him in person; 
they were in the nature of a reply to others he had 
written which Pasamonte had forwarded to court. 
The tone and content of these communications made 
it even more unmistakable that Ferdinand proposed 
to recognize his captain Velazquez as independent in 
very considerable sense of the authority of Admiral 
Colon. 

In these communications the king gave his entire 
approval to everything that Velazquez said that he 
had done. In indication of it he not only made him 
warden with salary of the fortress he had built at Bara- 
coa (a profitable sinecure Velazquez enjoyed all his 



46 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

life which was not continued to his successors), but 
he also made him what was far more important, — -his 
repartidor of the natives of Cuba, empowered to assign 
them among the Spaniards for service. 

There were no specific instructions as to the terms 
on which such allotments were to be made. Velazquez 
was to report on the Cubefios available and meanwhile 
using his best judgment and bearing the king's kindly 
intentions in mind, he was to begin to allot them, such 
assignments to hold, however, only during the king's 
pleasure, the express intention being to make changes 
possible if Velazquez's methods were not approved. 
In this particular capacity of repartidor Velazquez was 
responsible to the crown only from which emanated 
his appointment and his power. Admiral Colon, 
judges of the law court established in Santo Domingo, 
and royal officials of La Espafiola, were informed that 
the king considered Velazquez, because he was on the 
ground, to be the most competent person to represent 
his majesty in the delicate position of arbiter of the 
destiny of a subject race; they, however, might furnish 
him with written signed advice as to methods to em- 
ploy in making encomiendas. It is easy to appreciate 
the tremendous material advantage to Velazquez of 
the signal favor of this peculiar office so conferred on 
him: it lay with him, now, to make or break any other 
Spaniard in the island. 

Velazquez immediately proclaimed his appointments 
as warden and repartidor at Asuncion (Baracoa) and 
at San Salvador (Bayamo). He then began to "com- 
mend" the natives beginning as was prescribed with 
the king's treasurer, Cristobal de Cuellar, who got 
200 head, and with the men of his expedition; later 



"THE PESTILENCE OF THE REPARTIMIENTO " 47 

he provided for persons who arrived recommended to 
him by royal letter. He assigned them such and such 
chieftains, named by name, with the people of their 
village or immediate neighborhood, all of whom, though 
they were not slaves in that they could not be legally 
sold or otherwise transferred, were nevertheless to 
serve their Spanish masters during the governor's 
pleasure; the Spaniard who received such a grant 
obligated himself to feed and to clothe and to- instruct 
these Cubefios in the Christian religion. The natives 
so held were encomendados; each lot constituted an 
encomienda, and their masters were encomenderos. 
Before 1522 the maximum size of an encomienda was 
set at 300 head; prior to that year some Spaniards 
possessed larger allotments, and doubtless some few 
(or at least Manuel de Rojas) continued to hold more 
than the permissible number even after (in 1522) the 
maximum encomienda was supposed to be 200 to offi- 
cials; 100 to principal citizens; 60, medium encomienda; 
and 40 minimum. Original titles to encomiendas, 
signed by Velazquez himself, have passed through my 
hands in the Archive of the Indies at Seville. 

Title to an encomienda did not carry with it title to 
the land on which the "commended" Indians lived 
and labored. That was, however, usually vested in 
the encomendero (except when he was an absentee) 
by way of a vecindad, i. e., a " residence," the recipient 
of which grant became thereby a vecino, that is, a 
resident landowner. An encomendero was not neces- 
sarily a resident in the island; for instance, govern- 
ment officials in La Espafiola and in Spain, — Secretary 
Conchillos and Admiral Colon for example, — were 
masters of encomiendas in Cuba which possibly they 



48 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

never saw. Neither did a vecino necessarily receive 
Cubenos encomendados with his grant of lands, es- 
pecially not in later years when the supply of land 
outlasted the supply of natives. Nevertheless the 
actual colonists of Cuba in these early days usually 
owned the land as vecinos which the Cubenos native 
thereto worked for them as encomenderos. Their title 
to the soil was perpetual and alienable; their title to 
its inhabitants was revocable and non-transferable. 
Encomiendas were, however, sold with the lands under 
them, though the fiction that they could not be so 
disposed of was maintained. 

Indians who had been removed for any reason from 
their native habitat, usually to serve the Spaniards 
as body- and house-servants, were called naborias; 
title to use them was had from the repartidor as in the 
case of encomendados. Neither naborias nor encomenda- 
dos are to be confused with still a third class among 
the aborigines, — the slaves proper, who were branded 
in the forehead as such, like any other cattle. These 
were Cubenos taken in battle, — 'for to punish Hatuey's 
" rebellion" Ferdinand decreed that all so taken should 
be so enslaved and the measure was at the same time 
made extensive to all the Indies. Also wretched people 
from other parts, — from adjacent islands, from Mexico 
and from Tierra Firme, — who declined "to come into 
service" when formally " required" to do, were pres- 
ently brought into Cuba in considerable numbers and 
there disposed of by absolute sale, even after the cedula 
making such slavery illegal had been cried in Santiago 
(Nov. 3, 1531). 

When he was called to an accounting for the manner 
in which he had exercised his offices, not even Velaz- 



"THE PESTILENCE OF THE REPARTIMIENTO " 49 

quez's heirs denied that as repartidor he looked well 
to his own personal interests in assigning encomiendas; 
men who were in business partnership with him (pres- 
sently at many points all over the island, like his cousin 
Manuel de Rojas, and Juan Escribano and his brother 
Juan de Soria, all at Bayamo, Juan de Alia at Havana, 
Juan Rodriguez de Cordoba at Sancti Spiritus, Alonso 
Rodriguez at Guaniguanico, and perhaps others still), 
received choice and large allotments and felt exceed- 
ingly secure in their tenure. Neither, it seems, was 
Velazquez unaccustomed to exact the best of a bargain 
from these business associates of his when it came to 
settlement between them and him. 

An incautious student of this period might readily 
suppose that in their relations to the natives of Amer- 
ica both Isabella and Ferdinand were animated solely 
by aspiration to maintain a terrestrial paradise in the 
western world and crowd heaven with happy souls 
that would have been forever lost but for the provi- 
dential intervention of good Catholic masters. Cer- 
tainly the crown did ardently desire to compass the 
spiritual welfare of all the peoples by God committed 
to its care, including the unreckoned populations of 
the western hemisphere. It desired to confer upon 
them the boon of the Catholic religion. To convert 
unbelievers to the holy faith was a mission laid on the 
Spanish crown by the Almighty; and of the wearers 
of that crown the Almighty exacted responsibility. 
This conviction inspired Isabella and in his latter years 
certainly it disturbed Ferdinand and made him anxious 
in his attitude toward the aboriginal populations of 
his new possessions. 

Documents I have studied in this matter incline me 



50 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

to believe that toward the end of his life, when those 
great worldly hopes he had set his heart upon turned 
ashes, what treasures he might have laid up in heaven 
assumed to Ferdinand of Aragon an importance which 
outweighed then what had been the dominating char- 
acteristic of all his life: most sordid greed. It is not 
difficult to imagine that there shows through the royal 
communications on this subject issued in his declining 
years, the very real terror he had come to feel lest on 
dying he find himself face to face not with saved and 
happy multitudes, but with legions of souls lost through 
all eternity through the faithfulness of his agents in 
too closely obeying not the letter of his orders but that 
spirit of greed which had guided him all his life; their 
acts, as he reminded them, must weigh on him at the 
Last Judgment, and not on them. 

Charles V. inherited the fearful responsibility, and 
also apparently his grandfather's latter-day desire to 
investigate into the actual situation of his "free and 
loyal vassals," the natives of all America. Turning 
from secular officials, he confided the execution of his 
protective commands to churchly orders, only to find 
in holy men avarice he said he had believed them above 
entertaining. Greed remained uncontrolled. Touch 
of the gold the natives mined corrupted all it reached, 
even the dignitaries of church and state seated in the 
king's own council, — even the crown itself,— if indeed 
there had remained in Spain's highest places anything 
not years since corrupted by that other equally cor- 
rosive wealth smelted out of Judaism and Islam in the 
fires of the Holy Inquisition. 

Yet that somewhere in the crown existed conscience 
seems to me impossible to doubt in view of the fact 



"THE PESTILENCE OF THE REPARTIMIENTO " 51 

that when that fanatical Dominican, the good clerigo, 
Bartolome de las Casas, only an unimportant priest 
"from Indies," did finally make himself heard in the 
royal ear, his vox clamantis denouncing the depopula- 
tion of the Indies in the name of God and humanity 
bore weight against an opposing influence the might 
of which it is difficult to over-estimate. The king of 
Spain could not content himself with material profits 
only; gold of the Indies was welcome to him, but never- 
theless to his memory let it stand (be he Ferdinand or 
Charles), that he put high value on saved souls set down 
to his credit in his Catholic heaven. 

He came to accept finally the viewpoint of those of 
his advisers who agreed with las Casas that the natives 
of Cuba were indeed free men. He decreed their ab- 
solute liberty and recalled governor after governor who 
failed to effect it until a man was found to enforce the 
unwelcome order despite opposition of all the island. 
That most of the persons it was intended to liberate 
were by that time dead merely demonstrates the truth 
of the Spanish proverb concerning "El socorro del es- 
panol. . . ." The Spaniard's relief arrives late. 

Or it may be that it arrived when it was timed to 
arrive, after all, for the natives being mostly dead they 
were then no longer an element either of profit or of 
possible cleavage in that small portion of the Spanish 
state which Cuba constituted. Its political and eco- 
nomic utility gone, it is true that the crusading char- 
acter of the repartimiento system proved insufficient to 
sustain it; nevertheless, because the souls of the sur- 
vivors were discovered to be of negligible importance, 
the reality of the religious aspect of the system must 
not be denied. 



52 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Isabella and Ferdinand dreamed no less devoutly 
of saving souls because at the same time they were wide 
awake to the economic worth of the bodies those souls 
inhabited and to the political feasibility of controlling 
both, through the repartimiento system. 

That system was the tangible result of the applica- 
tion to Cuba of the expedient policy by which Isabella 
of Castile and Ferdinand of Aragon had consolidated 
the warring kingdoms and antagonistic peoples of the 
peninsula into a Spain, unified in the only bond which 
the conflicting characters concerned made possible, — 
the bond of a fanatic bigoted religious, "faith!" That 
expedient policy was a political (not a religious) policy, 
yet it was not unwarmed by religious zeal just as it 
was not entirely uncontaminated by most material of 
financial considerations. The conversion of the Jews 
and Moors in Spain had been good politics and profit- 
able business. It was intended that conversion of the 
natives of the New World also should be both, or at 
least pay expenses. In Spain the means employed for 
religious conversion and for the political consolidation 
which such conversion constituted, had been the Holy 
Office of the Inquisition: in Cuba the instrument was 
the repartimiento system. 

If these statements are to be comprehended, the terms 
employed must be defined. In Cuba to-day there is 
obvious lack of religious sincerity; I am convinced that 
this lack is no new thing, — if there was "irresistible 
moral force" even temporarily in "the spiritual exalta- 
tion" that emanated from Saint Dominic and lit the 
death fires at Seville, certainly it lost its potency ere 
it could be at all exerted in Cuba. The colonists who 
came to Cuba were Catholic as a matter of course, i. e. ? 



"THE PESTILENCE OF THE REPARTIMIENTO " 53 

they were generally observant of the formulae of the 
Roman church. To be Catholic was to the island's 
earliest settlers a matter of social and political, rather 
than of truly religious importance. To be "an old 
Christian" meant that a man was of " clean" blood, 
untainted by Jewish or Moorish ancestry, or, generally, 
by any other nationality than Spanish. When in 
evidence of fitness for political office, he took deposi- 
tions of friends and acquaintances to prove his lineage 
admirable, he declared himself a Christian and proved 
it by proving himself a Spaniard of uncontaminated 
origin: his orthodoxy was not brought into question. 
To be a Catholic was, I repeat, a state of social and 
political propriety, much as nowadays it is such to have 
been born in wedlock, — a requirement taken for granted, 
about which to raise a scandal if lacking. To this day 
in Seville "to be Catholic" means merely to be of 
the quality claimed; for instance, a painter tells me his 
rival uses paint "not as Catholic as it might be," i. e., 
its quality is not what it should be. The people were 
generally observant, as said, of the formulae of Rome; 
but these were little more than formulae nor was the 
observance of them a matter of vital importance since 
any lapse could always be condoned for a price, usually 
a small one at that. There was no moral, corrective 
force in the clergy; with few individual exceptions the 
clergy of Cuba through all the period under considera- 
tion was ignorant, venal and licentious. When con- 
traband commerce with "heretics" was declared to 
menace Spanish sovereignty in the island, priests were 
the oldest and most unrepentant of smugglers, — they 
were the drinking, gaming " go-betweens " in illicit 
traffic of their flock with "unbelievers." One most 



54 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

curious document do I recall wherein the writer laments 
the peculiar " theology of the Indies" which tolerated 
all this. 

Of " heretics" (almost synonymous with foreigners), 
the colonists of Cuba had at no time the holy horror 
which has been supposed. The visiting stranger's 
lack of Spanish nationality and orthodox beliefs merely 
marked him as different from and therefore inferior to 
the Catholic Spaniard, and so unfitted him for the Al- 
mighty's very great concern; they did not in the least 
disable him from becoming a party to a business trans- 
action, and as time passed it became increasingly ev- 
ident that the " heretic" might be a jolly good fellow, 
companionable at dinner as at a game of bowls, even 
acceptable as husband for a daughter or god-parent to 
a child, although of course his politico-social handicap 
of foreign birth and nonconformity was invariably re- 
grettable. The matter of nationality was later made 
merely a question of expense, — it could be " fixed" for 
a price (to componer, to fix is the significant technical 
term for the arrangement whereby colonists of foreign 
origin purchased immunity from government molesta- 
tion) . A lack of orthodoxy could be overlooked except 
in cases where it was an excuse not a cause for attack. 

Certainly if to enforce orthodoxy or even outward 
observance of entire respect for the Catholic religion 
had been the true object of the Inquisition it had work 
early laid out for it in Cuba, the necessity of which 
must have become increasingly apparent as the years 
went by. It is true that the Holy Office at times had 
its agents in the island and equally true that some- 
times the devout (Manuel de Rojas and later Francisco 
Calvillo) pleaded for its activities to purify the moral 



"THE PESTILENCE OF THE REPARTIMIENTO " 55 

atmosphere. There is evidence that circa 1517-18 one 
Juan Mufioz, described as "a Spanish Indian who 
dressed like a Christian" was burned at the stake and 
his 200 pesos worth of property confiscated in pitiable 
imitation of the persecution of other "new Christians" 
in Spain, and there is also evidence that a Spaniard 
named Alonso de Escalante whose house in Santiago 
became the fundicion suffered the same dread penalty, 
in Seville, yet cast so far as Cuba the awful shadow of 
Torquemada became merely a momentary annoyance: 
the agents of the Holy Office failed to maintain their 
authority, for the only actions of importance they pre- 
sumed to take were quickly repudiated by their supe- 
riors. The true character of the Inquisition, — religious 
bigotry made a profitable instrument for the consolida- 
tion of the Spanish state, — explains why it never 
thrived in Cuba: simply because it was not needed. 
The residents of the island did not at this time possess 
any property worth confiscating, and there were in the 
colony no barriers of race, caste or creed sufficiently 
significant to necessitate elimination by way of the 
Holy Office. On the continent, in Mexico and in Peru, 
where there was wealth and native peoples of person- 
ality strong enough to require that it be smelted out 
of them at the stake, the Inquisition throve trans- 
planted; not so in Cuba where the repartimiento system 
was sufficient to the requirements of the situation as 
Spanish statesmanship saw them, — sufficient to make 
Cuba all Spanish in making it all Catholic (observance 
of church formulae being always adequate evidence of 
Catholicism), and to do it if not at an actual profit to 
the state, at least at no expense to the crown. 

Certainly individual Spaniards who did the con- 



56 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

quering and the converting of Cuba, — who took posses- 
sion of the land by arms and maintained that possession 
by making it Catholic, — expected to find remuneration 
in their work, and when they cleared with Velazquez 
from La Espanola his followers had every intention to 
interpret most practically the Spanish king's explicit 
expressions of benevolent intentions toward the Cu- 
benos. 

Velazquez's appointment as repartidor and the con- 
sequent establishment of the repartimiento system in 
Cuba was the crown's acquiescence in their plans. 
Such acquiescence was flat contradiction in fact of the 
king's noble theory with respect to his "free vassals" 
in the New World; merely because he so contradicted 
it the crown did not cease to cherish this theory, — far 
from it! He held it dear and, — as soon as it became 
politically and economically feasible to do so, — he en- 
forced it in law. Expediency was a large part of 
morality and of statesmanship in these early days; and 
who finds the Spaniards' attitude toward native 
Americans condemnable need not strain his eyes to see 
in our own times similar instances of amazing dis- 
crepancy between professed theory and actual fact. 



CHAPTER IV 

FIRST SETTLEMENT (1512-1515) 

Senalados los lugares para las dichas villas y para cada una 
senalados los vecinos espanoles y repartidoles los indios de la 
comarca, danse priesa los espanoles a hacer sudar el agua mala a, 
los pobres y delicados indios haciendo las casas del pueblo y 
labranzas y cada espanol que podia echarlos a las minas y sino 
en todas las otras granjerias que podian. — Las Casas, Historia 
de las Indias, IV, p. 39. 

Leaving Baracoa established and Bayamo in course 
of construction at the hands of Cubehos encomendados 
for whom there came no relief in life from the bondage 
which had fastened upon them, Velazquez on Decem- 
ber 18, 1513, proceeded on his way to Xagua (Cien- 
fuegos) ; while the rest marched overland he with part 
of his men coasted alongshore in canoes. 

There is some evidence that he found the keys there 
which Columbus had named Gardens of the Queen 
populated with gentle people who on his report were 
doomed to servitude, not in Cuba as he would have 
preferred, but in La Espanola, for they were presently 
declared lawful prey of slaving expeditions from that 
island. The king consented that they be carried away, 
with as little disturbance as possible of adjacent gold- 
bearing regions, to replace the native Haytians who 
were disappearing fast under treatment inflicted on 
them by the Christian masters to whom they were 
" commended." Presently, — before 1516, — 'this hunt- 

57 



58 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

ing privilege was extended, in practice certainly, to 
slavers from Cuba itself. I am inclined to believe that 
the aborigines so hunted down, through the Gardens 
of the Queen, were largely mainland Cubenos who 
had fled there for refuge. 

Velazquez made stops at various points, demanding 
and receiving, he later reported, the adhesion of numer- 
ous chiefs. Not all the island's caciques had confessed 
allegiance to the Catholic king. Finally, as he had 
planned, his reunited party joined Narvaez's at Xagua 
and there on one of the islets which adorn that magnifi- 
cent bay they celebrated Christmas of 1513. Who can 
doubt that they were cheered by the three casks of wine 
Ocampo had left there? 

From Xagua the Spaniards sallied out in prospect- 
ing parties and they found gold. They set Cubenos to 
panning it out and were pleased with the yield, espe- 
cially with that obtained from the sands of the Arimao 
river. That they got gold there determined the site 
of the next city founded, in January, 1514, to which 
they gave the name it bears yet of Trinidad. 

Two caravels for which Velazquez had asked had 
arrived (on February 10, 1514) at the port of San 
Salvador de Bayamo, from Seville via Santo Domingo. 
One of these Velazquez now despatched to Jamaica 
to bring a cargo of cazabe bread to Trinidad; it had 
not rained the year before and even the natives were 
suffering from famine. The other caravel he sent to 
La Espanola for horned cattle, mares, maize and other 
necessary things. It is on record that he was very 
slow in paying for some of the goods he got. 

While in this eminently practical and equally laud- 
able manner Velazquez was laying the foundations 



FIRST SETTLEMENT (1512-1515) 59 

of Cuba's future prosperity in encouraging agriculture 
and the cattle industry, and commerce (with Castilla 
del Oro at Darien which the king, prescient that it was 
the gateway to richer possessions, especially desired 
Cuba to assist), there was sown in him the noxious 
seed of his own destruction: for it was while he was at 
Trinidad at this time that Velazquez heard more defi- 
nitely of "isles to the north," to discover which he 
asked leave to try, but this the king in Spain denied 
to him, bidding him content himself with Cuba and 
with building up trade between this island and the 
southern continent. 

Presently Narvaez, with a considerable party, de- 
parted, as said, for the west. There he founded that 
settlement which in the course of many vicissitudes 
became the city of Havana; it had its miserable com- 
mencement on the south shore of the aboriginal prov- 
ince of that name, in the vicinity of the mediocre port 
still known as Batabano. 

Velazquez himself returned eastward. 

By April 1, 1514, he had established four towns. 
By August 1, 1515, he had made the number seven, 
each with its church. These were Baracoa, Bayamo, 
Trinidad; Sancti Spiritus, Havana and Camaguey (in 
order not readily distinguished) ; and Santiago de Cuba, 
the site of which was determined I think, before mid- 
April, 1515, the royal officials approving Velazquez's 
choice of the place. 

It was selected because it was an excellent harbor, 
most conveniently situated with relation to La Espan- 
ola, to Jamaica, and especially to Castilla del Oro. 
The continent had begun to yield gold and the king 
was exceedingly interested in encouraging develop- 



60 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

ment there. He desired to see Cuba and Jamaica 
become bases of supply for exploration and conquest 
on the isthmus. Vessels returning from that quarter 
continued to wreck frequently on the south coast of 
Cuba. With Christians in possession of the general 
neighborhood, in settlements at Havana, Trinidad, 
and around Manzanillo, and at Santiago, such trage- 
dies as befell Hojeda's refugees from San Sebastian 
and certain of Ocampo's men who were killed near 
Cabo Cruz, might be avoided. The establishment of 
Santiago in quite the best location along all that south 
seacoast was due to the king's interest in this matter. 
It was the only settlement in Cuba which seems to 
have had no gold mines in its immediate vicinity to 
explain choice of the site. Though all were early agreed 
that a fort there with artillery was desirable it is not 
shown that any was at this time built. There was, in 
fact, no real need of any pretentious defense. 

That master analyst Hume, writing of "The Spanish 
People," remarks the persistence among them of "the 
original Iberian tradition" which he defines to be "a 
powerful tendency ... to assert individual liberty 
and localize patriotism." Spain transmitted to Cuba 
this "original Iberian tradition," — "the original Ibe- 
rian tradition" which compels each Spaniard, and, like 
him, each Cuban, to discover in himself a singular 
entity: the force, that is, which in them works for dis- 
integration. It is a force so powerful that the might 
of mightiest Rome never overcame, but only so codified 
it that Spain transmitted to Cuba this "original Ibe- 
rian tradition, modified by Latin organization." That 
sentence will bear re-reading. I believe that in the 
fact it states lies the explanation of much in the history 



FIRST SETTLEMENT (1512-1515) 61 

of Cuba which must seem inexplicable unless its mean- 
ing be thoroughly understood. 

It must be borne in mind that Spain in her develop- 
ment had narrowly missed becoming a peninsular 
Switzerland. The towns had been powerful. In the 
struggle between them and the nobility the crown had 
supported first one and then the other "in order to 
hold the balance." If the victory of the communities 
over the feudal element had been complete Spain in- 
stead of "a pure despotism depending upon popular 
but inarticulate consent" might have become a federal 
republic. 

All of this and more, too, lay behind Diego de Velaz- 
quez when in Cuba he set about founding towns. The 
law of the time contained precise instructions for his 
guidance : in part these rules and regulations antedated 
Romulus' first survey of the eternal hills of Rome, 
from which Spain's jurisprudence came! See Leviticus, 
xxv., 34. Therefore, proceeding as nearly in accordance 
with them as specific circumstances in each case allowed, 
in establishing the seven cities of early Cuba Velazquez 
staked off for each its public square or plaza, which 
was not necessarily an open space since the jail or 
market might occupy it, and from that as a center 
he laid out each town. Just as the maximum and 
minimum sizes of plazas were specified by law so too 
were the width and direction of the streets to lead 
from them. The town church and the residence of the 
governor or his representative, and the town hall 
usually faced upon this plaza. On the edge of the city 
limits as its founders determined them, always with 
due consideration to possible expansion, there was a 
strip of land reserved for the use of all the residents. 



62 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Indefinitely beyond it in Cuba at this time each mu- 
nicipality exercised the right to grant titles to cattle 
ranges, hog ranches and farms: the entire island was 
considered to be divided among the seven cities, but 
no attempt at delimitation was made. Some land 
titles seem to have been issued by Velazquez as gover- 
nor even at dates when the councils also were making 
grants, and certainly it was to Velazquez that the king 
addressed himself in recommending persons for vecin- 
dades. 

By right of the authority invested in him by Admiral 
Colon, Velazquez named the officials of each town he 
founded, — -three regidores (councilmen) who constituted 
the regimiento, and a first and second alcalde. 

The regimiento and the alcalde sitting together, were 
the cabildo or town council, over which the alcalde 
presided only in the absence of the governor and of 
his second in authority: at Havana Velazquez installed 
to represent him, because of the great distance between 
that settlement and his own seat in the east, a teniente 
a guerra, i. e., a lieutenant with delegated powers to 
hear law suits appealed from decisions of the ordinary 
alcaldes. 

The word alcalde which should not be translated 
mayor, is said to be of Arabic origin and to mean "one 
who judges;" certainly this was the alcalde's primary 
duty as is further indicated by the name la justicia 
by which he and his second were designated, i. e., "the 
justice." The alcalde was a judge of first instance; 
appeal from his decisions lay to the governor, and 
beyond the governor to the audiencia. 

The audiencia was a court which had been established 
in Santo Domingo prior to the conquest of Cuba. Cuba 



FIRST SETTLEMENT (1512-1515) 63 

was only a part of its wide jurisdiction. Its judges were, 
on the average, fearless, able, and disinterested men. 

Appeal from the audiencia's decisions lay to Spain, — ■ 
to the royal council for the Indies in which body the 
colonists of Cuba invariably saw the king himself as 
the practical, not merely the theoretical fount of justice. 

Minor officials were the alguacil, sheriff, a dependent 
of the justicia whom the governor named; the notaries 
(escribanos) who had to prove efficiency before either 
the council for the Indies or the audiencia of Santo 
Domingo and held royal commission; and the district 
procurador (attorney), the advocate of the community 
who was at this time, I believe, chosen by the town 
council. 

In each of his seven settlements Velazquez estab- 
lished as vecinos and encomenderos, i. e., as owners in 
perpetuity of the land and as masters during the king's 
pleasure of its native population, residents of whom 
history has much to say in later years: Bartolome de 
las Casas was among the original settlers at Trinidad 
where in these his unregenerate days he worked his 
" commended" Indians in partnership with Pedro de 
la Renteria; Bernal Diaz del Castillo, who had come up 
from Darien with others who abandoned Pedrarias 
Davila there, preferred Sancti Spiritus. Vasco Porcallo 
de Figueroa was an original settler in Camaguey prov- 
ince. Hernando Cortes became an alcalde of Santiago 
de Cuba. 

The city of Santiago immediately assumed chief 
importance among the seven early settlements; it soon 
became the civil, and also the ecclesiastical, capital of 
the island despite honors in the shape of a formal title 
of "city" bestowed on Baracoa and the fact that 



64 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Baracoa's church had been made the cathedral. Grad- 
ually that first established settlement was deserted 
until it fell to be "not even the shadow of a city but 
rather of a rural hamlet." 

At Santiago came to reside as well as the governor, 
Velazquez, also the royal officials on salary: treasurer 
Cristobal de Cuellar; accountant Amador de Lares, and 
factor Hurtuno de Isunsolo, in charge for his majesty 
of the fiscal affairs of the country, i. e., of collecting 
the crown's revenues into a "three-keyed box." Chief 
among their royal revenues was the royal "fifth" (which 
was sometimes an eighth, sometimes a tenth, or less) of 
the gold mined. Next in importance ranked customs 
duties payable at the rate of 7^%, and, finally, tithes, 
and fines imposed for minor infractions of the law; the 
royal officials were also charged with the remittance to 
Spain or disbursement in Cuba of these revenues as the 
king directed, of all which business they were expected 
to render due accounting. 

To Santiago, too, was removed from Bayamo both 
the custom house and the only smelting plant (fundi- 
don) in the country, the operation of which for a given 
period in the spring of each year became a very im- 
portant occasion, for then in the presence of the gov- 
ernor and of the royal officials, and of the agent of the 
royally commissioned inspector of smelting, and of 
notaries, — and also, alas, until the abuse was remedied, 
in the even more uncomfortable proximity of his cred- 
itors, enthusiastically assembled,— each man was com- 
pelled by law to produce that it might be melted and 
marked, what gold his miners, — they were at first 
bonded gang-bosses with a share in the result of the 
labors of his squads of "commended" Cubehos who did 



FIRST SETTLEMENT (1512-1515) 65 

I 

the actual work of digging and washing, — had succeeded 
in finding during the preceding year. Church and state 
and those individuals who could prove him indebted to 
them took their share of it; the residue if any was his 
own. 

"And much gold was had," says Oviedo, "because 
the island is rich in mines, and live stock from La 
Espanola thrived as did all the plants and herbs taken 
over from here and from Spain. Diego Velazquez 
looked well to these things and because he was clever 
he desired not only thanks for what he did but also 
part of what the soil's fertility brought forth. In fine, 
the island of Cuba came to be very prosperous and well 
populated with Christians and full of Indians, and 
Diego Velazquez very rich. He had such friends near 
the Catholic king and such was the friendship between 
him and the treasurer, Miguel Pasamonte, that even 
had Admiral Colon desired to remove Diego Velazquez 
from office he could not have done so." 

The king himself being of a mind in February of 1515 
to subject Velazquez and the royal officials of Cuba to 
the routine investigation of their administration which 
was called "taking a residencia" was by July dissuaded 
from doing so, such "excellent reports" had he received 
of their conduct in office. "No man," his majesty wrote 
in August, when urging his agents at Seville to cooperate 
with and encourage Velazquez in "his admirable policy 
with regard to Cuba," "could act more wisely in affairs 
of that island than he." 



CHAPTER V 

THE FLOW AND HIGH-TIDE OF PROSPERITY (1515-1518) 

"... Esta dicha isla estaba muy poblada ansi de espanoles 
como de yndios e abia en ella muy ricas minas a cuya causa todos 
los espanoles e vecinos de la dicha isla cogian mucha cantidad 
de pesos de oro e todos estaban ricos e prosperos . . . se hacian 
muy grandes gastos ansi por los espanoles como para los dichos 
yndios ... a caros e subidos precios por cuya jama continua- 
mente por espacio de los dichos . . . afios vinieron a esta isla 
muy gran copia de nabios en que venian muy ricos mercaderes 
que traian e enviaban a, sus fatores de todas suertes de sedas, 
panos ricos e muy finos, ropa blanca de todos suertes, calcado de 
todas maneras con los aparejos de herramentas necesarios para 
las dichas minas, vinos, harinas, azeites, vinagre con otros in- 
finites bastimentos, ropa e mercaderias e calonas de yndios . . . 
e de cada dia sobrevinieron mas nabios de la calidad de los pasa- 
dos . . . se descubrieron las tierras nuevas . . . por los cuales 
se esperaba que dende los reinos de Espana abian de benir doblados 
nabios de los que solian venir a esta isla adonde abian de cargar 
y desde aqui tener contratacion con las dichas tierras nuevas. . . ." 
A. de I., 47, 1, 3/30. 

The business of melting down the gold mined drew 
the settlers of Cuba into Santiago at the time of the 
fundicion, in the spring of the year before the closing 
down of the rainy season made travel through the 
country impossible. Then the procuradores, represent- 
ing the town councils and so the several communities of 
the colony, found it convenient to meet there annually 
during that period to discuss the needs and desires of 
their respective constituencies. An alcalde of Santiago 

66 



FLOW AND HIGH-TIDE OF PROSPERITY (1515-1518) 67 

presided over their sessions; a notary kept the records 
of the discussions which followed the formal presenta- 
tion to the meeting of each district's opinions and re- 
quirements as these were embodied in the more or 
less detailed and restrictive instructions each council 
had issued to its representative. Out of these con- 
ferences was evolved a report on conditions which 
was also a petition for " remedy" addressed by the 
procuradores in the name of the cabildos and therefore 
of all the colony to the king of Spain. Or, not infre- 
quently, a procurador general was despatched to for- 
mulate in person what requests his subjects in Cuba 
desired to make of his most Catholic majesty. This 
annual conference of procuradores was in Cuba the 
lengthened shadow of the Cortes of Castile; like the 
Cortes its " legislative power" consisted only of petition 
and protest to the crown. 

The king in Spain was very real and very near to 
every Spaniard in Cuba despite the divinity which 
hedged him. The king, or if it were a queen ("muy 
poderosa senora") upon the Spanish throne, then the 
queen, was an individual and a friend in the minds of 
his loyal subjects in this island. To him they wrote, — 
to his " sacred Catholic royal majesty;" in their letters 
they kissed his hands and feet, prayed God to guard his 
royal person in the Almighty's service through a long 
life and to increase his kingdoms to the advancement 
of the holy faith by all additions his royal heart desired 
and the welfare of Christendom necessitated even to the 
total of all the portion he did not yet control of this 
mundane sphere! They signed themselves quite fre- 
quently as ' ' his very least servants. ' ' The monarch was 
the government: the Spanish mind had reconciled "the 



68 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

original Iberian tradition" with despotic monarchy. 
In the Catholic king, greatest of humans and well-nigh 
even more, individual liberty and presently local 
patriotism too could recognize a superior and still 
preserve inviolate "the original Iberian tradition." 
To the king, therefore, the vecinos of Cuba addressed 
themselves, with an appreciation of his personal identity 
which gives to all the communications of this period an 
intimate tone; this, in fading away toward the close of 
the century, takes with it much of "the human interest" 
I have found in the archived documents of this first 
and delightful era, when the humblest Spaniard in the 
colony of Cuba called on his Virgin and his monarch 
in every extremity, confident that he personally was an 
object of the especial consideration of both, and, in 
dying, consigned his body to the ground and his soul, 
not always to God but in one instance at least, to his 
king. To this sentiment in his people in Cuba the 
crown responded, receiving almost as foreign ambas- 
sadors the representatives they sent to court. 

In July, 1515, Panfllo de Narvaez and Antonio Velaz- 
quez, authorized procuradores, went to Spain to present 
to the king various demands on behalf of the settlers 
in "the island Fernandina formerly called Cuba." 
The admirable prince Juan for whom Columbus named 
Cuba having died, the island had been rechristened 
Fernandina that the word Juana might not serve as a 
reminder of "the Catholic kings'" and all Spain's bitter 
loss, but to avoid confusion in this writing I have dis- 
regarded the change: the name Cuba gradually won 
its way into even official communications and is the 
designation which has survived. 

Also between them Narvaez and Antonio Velazquez 



FLOW AND HIGH-TIDE OF PROSPERITY (1515-1518) 69 

conveyed to the king 12,437 pesos in gold, not all the 
crown's fifth of what had been mined. This figure 
implies that in four years Cuba had produced more 
than 62,000 pesos of gold, a considerable treasure at 
that date. While not the first, this was evidently the 
first large consignment of Cuban gold delivered to the 
crown. The king (November, 1515) ordered it coined 
in haste; from it he bade his agents in Seville provide 
only one-half the most necessary items included in a 
list which came with the remittance, of what the colony 
considered necessary to enable it to produce still more 
of the precious metal. Comprehending Ferdinand's 
character, Narvaez and Antonio Velazquez had intro- 
duced Cuba's various petitions for favor accompanied 
by her gold and her promise of more. 

They asked, among other things, that the Cubefios 
be "commended" to them and to their heirs in per- 
petuity, that in such grants earliest settlers be preferred, 
that the towns be given a cacique each, and that persons 
non-resident in the colony be ineligible to hold encomien- 
das. Unfortunately for the success of this part of their 
mission, Fray Bartolome de las Casas arrived at court 
at about the same time fired with fanatic zeal to cham- 
pion the cause of the Indians. He had resigned to 
Velazquez the Cubenos apportioned to him when he 
settled at Trinidad; he was convinced that to retain 
them imperilled his immortal soul. He had set all 
Cuba by the ears with his preaching to the effect that 
the Cubenos were free men, indeed, and that to hold 
them in repartimiento was a damnable sin. He went 
to Spain prepared to tell king Ferdinand as much as 
this, — it was to proclaim that the greatest in that land, 
laymen and clergy alike, were in peril of hell's fires, — • 



70 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

but at this juncture Ferdinand died (January 23, 1516), 
and the cardinal Fray Francisco Ximenez stood in his 
place pending the arrival of Charles V. "of Germany" 
who was in Flanders. To the austere cardinal and to 
the faces of other high church dignitaries less inclined 
by character to hear him, and before the most powerful 
secular officials of the realms, whom he did not neglect 
to remind that they were beneficiaries of the crime, 
this inspired fanatic priest denounced with a multitude 
of horrible detail the abuses which were depopulating 
the Indies. The answer Narvaez and Antonio Velaz- 
quez received to their petition was to address them- 
selves to the tribunal of Jeronimite monks which was 
about to be established in Santo Domingo. 

In July, 1516, Charles informed the superiors of this 
order of his imperial determination to place the spiritual 
and temporal welfare of the native population of the 
Indies in their hands, "as religious persons in whom 
there could be no greed." "Uncontrolled greed" was 
recognized as the cause of existing conditions in the 
New World, conditions such that they "grieved the 
king, as a Christian." The Jeronimites protested 
against assuming responsibility in temporal affairs, they 
warned the king that as the situation of the aborigines 
improved the royal revenues must decrease, but on 
the following November 11th, 1516, four of the order 
sailed from Sant Lucar for Santo Domingo where three 
of them constituted a curious court thereafter for some 
time to be considered especially in all matters relating 
to the diminishing native population of Cuba. Velaz- 
quez was duly informed of their mission and instructed 
to favor them in it. They had become his superiors 
in respect of his office of repartidor, even, and yet I 



FLOW AND HIGH-TIDE OF PROSPERITY (1515-1518) 71 

cannot say that I have seen any evidence that they 
ameliorated, or otherwise influenced, the condition of 
the Cubefios. Possibly documents concerning this 
tribunal in relation to Cuba are to be found outside 
the Archives of Seville. 

Already, — within five years of the commencement 
of their domination, — 'the Spaniards were beginning 
to find the natives of Cuba too few: through Narvaez 
and Velazquez they asked a provision prohibiting the 
exportation of Cubefios. Because to equip and de- 
spatch slaving expeditions to " adjacent, useless," i. e., 
non-gold-producing, islands was expensive, they per- 
suaded the crown to forego payment of one-half of 
the fifth share in the profits of these nefarious under- 
takings in which, despite all his professed interest in 
the welfare of his "free vassals" Ferdinand had been 
sharing; they further solicited authority to hunt slaves 
on neighboring islands where there was gold. This 
petition also was referred to the Jeronimites at Santo 
Domingo. 

Whatever may have been the tribunal's decision in 
the matter, all through the year 1516 the Spaniards 
whose headquarters were Santiago de Cuba found 
man-hunting expeditions profitable and one such 
raided islets off Yucatan which Columbus when he 
discovered them had called the Guanajes. On one 
occasion twenty-five men remained encamped on one 
of these islands while the larger of two ships in which 
they had come returned to Cuba with captives. While 
this vessel lay off Havana (still situated on the south 
coast), with but eight men aboard, the rest having 
gone ashore, the prisoners (las Casas says) broke 
through the hatches, swarmed on deck, killed those 



72 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

eight, and, to the stupefaction of the rest who saw 
from land what transpired, they raised the anchor, 
hoisted the sails, and made away, back to the islands 
from which they had been taken. Arrived there they 
turned their captors' weapons as found aboard ship 
against the twenty-five Spaniards who had remained 
behind; these took refuge in the brigantine they had 
and tried to escape to Darien. Velazquez in Santiago 
being informed of this matter equipped two ships to 
go to their rescue, "and from there to discover other 
islands and lands by which," — his words, addressed 
to Diego Colon, — -"our Lord and their highnesses 
might be served by bringing the native population 
of them into our holy Catholic faith." The Spaniards 
who went in those ships found the wreck of the brigan- 
tine and surmised the fate of the twenty-five. They 
loaded up with natives, and, in addition to this cargo, 
they brought back with them, Velazquez reported, 
20,000 pesos in gold. This was a very encouraging 
amount, — a fifth as much as all Cuba was producing 
now in a year with her mines flourishing, — and it was 
got too in the course of a short excursion much more 
to Spanish taste than months of mining. 

Narvaez and Antonio Velazquez, as general pro- 
curadores in Spain, had also asked for Cuba authority 
to equip and clear ships "to explore, with Diego Velaz- 
quez's advice, certain neighboring islands," and al- 
though this petition was, like others mentioned, re- 
ferred to the Jeronimites, Velazquez seems meanwhile 
to have proceeded on the assumption that it would be 
granted, for late in 1516 he commissioned Francisco 
Fernandez de Cordoba, a vecino and encomendero of 
Sancti Spiritus, to captain another venture similar 



FLOW AND HIGH-TIDE OF PROSPERITY (1515-1518) 73 

to that which found the islets off Yucatan so very 
profitable. I do not know the terms of this commission 
or what special authority if any Velazquez had to 
issue it. It is supposed that Velazquez had a financial 
interest, perhaps a fourth share, in the expedition 
when it cleared from Santiago in February, 1517. 
Fernandez de Cordoba's pilot was Anton Alaminos 
who had accompanied Columbus upon that disastrous 
voyage in the course of which the Admiral had touched 
at points in what is now Central America. There 
Columbus and those with him including Alaminos saw 
evidence that much of interest lay beyond that coast; 
they were at the time, however, in no condition to 
investigate. Persistent rumor and now recent events 
all tended to corroborate the First Admiral's frequently 
expressed opinion that wonders lay further west. Sail- 
ing from Axaruco (Jaruco, near Havana), Fernandez 
de Cordoba continued in that direction; beyond Cape 
San Antonio he turned slightly south. Though others 
had previously seen or even visited its coasts, he is 
generally reckoned to have discovered Yucatan on 
this voyage. 

Eventually his expedition returned,— two ships only 
and in such condition they had to be left for over- 
hauling in Carenas (the present-day Havana) harbor. 
Fernandez de Cordoba, full of wounds, made his way 
home to Sancti Spiritus to die of them there, while 
those of his followers whom the savages of Yucatan 
and of Florida (where they touched in returning) had 
not succeeded in killing scattered through the island 
to recuperate if they could from the hardships of the 
experience they had had; some made their way to 
Velazquez with details of their discovery of that "is- 



74 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

land," which they found inhabited by warlike people 
who built edifices of stone with mortar and used the 
cross in decoration of them; wore clothing, had feather 
mantles and pompous head-dresses, and displayed 
ornaments of gold and silver which metals they seemed 
to hold in slight esteem. With him Fernandez de 
Cordoba brought captive two Yucatan Indians whom 
the Spaniards named "old Melchor" and " little Ju- 
lian": the tales these told set the Christians mad with 
desire to possess the country they described. 

Gonzalo de Guzman, vecino of Santiago de Cuba, 
and a relative of Velazquez's, was sent to court with 
news of these events. Narvaez was still in Spain, and 
active on behalf of Cuba though his progress was de- 
layed by Ferdinand's death and consequent disturb- 
ance of governmental affairs, but Antonio Velazquez, 
it would seem, had returned home. Through Guzman 
Velazquez asked the administration of the new lands 
he had found and of what others he might discover. 
Hernando Cortes and Diego de Orellano were sent as 
procuradores in this general matter to Santo Domingo. 

Before Fernandez de Cordoba was comfortably 
dead of his wounds and amid his protests that he was 
being despoiled of just deserts, Velazquez in mid- 
January of 1518 commissioned his nephew Juan de 
Grijalva to continue the discovery which Cordoba had 
begun. Grijalva embarked on the 25th of that month 
and year at Santiago in three caravels and a brigantine. 
En route west they called at Matanzas, to take on 
supplies prepared by Pedro de Velazquez de Leon on 
his estate there, and at San Cristobal de la Havana 
(now definitely removed from the south coast but not 
yet permanently settled upon its present site) where 



FLOW AND HIGH-TIDE OF PROSPERITY (1515-1518) 75 

other prosperous and therefore prominent vecinos 
aided him to provision his expedition for a year's ab- 
sence. He also received additional recruits. The last 
of April (or May 1st?), 1518, Grijalva cleared from 
Cape San Antonio with two hundred men. When he 
returned in October of that year he had taken formal 
possession for Diego de Velazquez and for Spain, of 
what is now Mexico. 

Meanwhile, Velazquez in Santiago (excited out of 
the sober reason he had up to this point displayed in 
his administration of affairs), chafed for news of him. 
He even despatched a ship under Cristobal de Olid 
after him, to reinforce him if necessary and in hopes 
to learn more quickly of what he had found. This 
ship reached the coasts of Mexico but put back to 
Cuba driven by storms of "the cyclone season." The 
first news Velazquez got was brought by Pedro de 
Alvarado whom Grijalva sent back earlier than the 
rest of his expedition with his wounded and with sam- 
ples of what he had secured from the natives by barter: 
collars made of plates of gold, beaten gold trinkets, 
hollow gold beads, and gold-wrought head-dresses, — 
such certain indications of treasure to be had for the 
looting of it as had not theretofore been seen outside 
dreams of el dorado. It occurs to me as possible that 
Grijalva also asked his uncle for instructions as to 
colonization; the terms of his commission forbade him 
to make any settlement. 

Grijalva and his men arrived at Matanzas on Octo- 
ber 8th and in this port he met Olid who had put in 
there with his single caravel a week before. When 
Velazquez heard of Grijalva's return he bade him hurry 
from Matanzas to Santiago to report, at the same 



76 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

time advising the rank and file of his expedition to 
remain where they were, or in Havana, if they desired 
to return to "the rich island," as they called that land 
from which they had brought such promising trophies, 
for it was, he announced, his intention to send forth 
another expedition at once: in fact this expedition 
was almost ready and Hernando Cortes had received 
his commission to captain it, possibly because he had 
invested heavily in the venture. On his own account 
Velazquez promised Grijalva's men he would provide 
them from estates at Jaruco (his own and the crown's) 
with everything they needed, and he instructed the 
local authorities at Havana to extend them courteous 
treatment. So some remained in the west awaiting 
further orders; others doubtless scattered to their 
holdings in and about the seven settlements of Cuba, 
always however with the intention of being on hand 
when that other expedition should set out, and as they 
talked to their stay-at-home neighbors there is no 
reason to believe the marvels that they had seen in 
Mexico diminished in the telling. 

Grijalva made his report to Velazquez and his re- 
ward was his uncle's displeasure because he had not 
disregarded the terms of his commission and estab- 
lished a settlement, — a thing that commission for- 
bade him to do. I presume that Grijalva's instructions 
in this particular reflected the provisions of Velazquez's 
own limited authority from the Jeronimite tribunal 
in Santo Domingo. Decidedly out of favor, " dis- 
dained," Oviedo says, by Velazquez, and " disliked" 
by his own men, Grijalva here passes from the history 
of Cuba. 

Even before Velazquez knew the outcome of Gri- 



FLOW AND HIGH-TIDE OF PROSPERITY (1515-1518) 77 

jalva's expedition he had, as said, prepared another 
of which after some vacillation he named Hernando 
Cortes to be the captain. Of the Jeronimites he asked 
authority to establish settlements in the newly dis- 
covered region. Later by a chaplain of his named 
Benito Martinez he sent to Spain an account of Gri- 
jalva's voyage and golden evidence of the truth of the 
story. He repeated his request that he be entrusted 
with the administration of the regions he had found. 

On November 13th, 1518, acceding to his earlier 
petitions to this same effect, the crown gave Velazquez 
authority to explore at his own expense, and made 
him adelantado and governor not over Cuba, be it 
noted, for in Cuba he was confirmed as governor's 
lieutenant under Colon, and repartidor for the crown, — ■ 
but over the islands and mainlands he had discovered 
and others he might thereafter find. Every favor here 
and hereafter was extended to him and to all under 
him. He was by this cedula fully empowered for 
exploration, conquest, and for government of con- 
quered territory, and his honors were assured to his 
heir. 

This is perhaps a proper point at which to consider 
for a moment what manner of men these were who 
now, in Cuba, stood about to undertake one of the 
most amazing adventures that ever fell to mortal lot. 
"The thirteenth century," says Hume, "saw the en- 
trance of the Spanish people into the circle of cultured 
European nations. The civilization they had evolved 
out of the turmoil of warring races and alternate domina- 
tions had received its breath of life from the traditions 
of old Rome; but the abundant Afro-Semitic blood in 
the race and the element of far Eastern culture, — the 



78 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

tastes and arts of Syria and Persia introduced by the 
Arabs, — had given to Spanish civilization features 
which distinguished it from that of any other western 
nation. The fatalism and indifference of life which 
is a characteristic of the Afro-Semitic races had made 
the Spaniards bold fighters and cruel conquerors. . . . 
The fifteenth century in Spain saw chivalry and knight- 
errantry raised by the overflowing imagination of the 
people to a cult." Fed by a flood of exuberant non- 
sense which was the literature of the time, "the na- 
tion," Hume continues, "formed a false standard of 
honor and conduct, and an exaggerated notion of its 
own qualities. Knights and ladies, — nay, . . . even 
working people, — full of these stories of knight-errantry, 
strove to dress and live up to the stilted romantic 
ideal. The evil seed fell upon fertile soil, for the Span- 
iard ever clutched at an excuse for deceiving himself 
into the belief that he was an individual apart; and 
thus at the opening of the modern era of the world he 
became a wool-gathering visionary, thirsting for vague 
adventures in far countries but loath to do steady work 
in his own." The Spaniard of the sixteenth century, 
in Cuba, was still much of all these things: Iberian in 
his pride of individuality; Roman in the spirit of his 
local institutions; Afro-Semitic in his love of pomp and 
play, and in his disregard of life, be it his own or others' ; 
soon to be shamed by Don Quixote out of knight- 
errantry but wool-gathering yet after his dorado; pre- 
eminently child of a Spain that had been consolidated 
by means of religious bigotry, he was a militant crusad- 
ing Christian zealous to obliterate all divisions of race 
and caste in the faith, and convinced by his previous 
experience with Jews and moriscos that for him to 



FLOW AND HIGH-TIDE OF PROSPERITY (1515-1518) 79 

profit in the course of their conversion by the bodies 
and by the property of the heathen was a policy en- 
tirely acceptable to the Most High. To such men Fate 
consigned the conquest of Mexico. 

They were much the same sort of men who remained 
behind in Cuba. The colony was prosperous. Influx 
of settlers was continuous; they came in response to 
encouragement, — farmers were offered free passage and 
maintenance, free lands, the help of natives to erect 
their first homes, and exemption from taxation except 
the tithes "they owed to God"; they came not only 
from "the kingdoms of Castile" but from all the other 
less flourishing portions of the Indies, — from Darien, 
from La Espanola, and, notably, from Porto Rico. 
The native population was reinforced by red captives 
taken in many quarters: Juan Ponce, for instance, 
complained that Velazquez had "scandalized all the 
land of Bimini and Florida" by taking 300 head from 
there! Already black slaves constituted an element 
in the population. 

The colony had a considerable commerce. Narvaez 
and Antonio Velazquez when in Spain as general pro- 
curadores sought favors for it. For the settlers they 
secured liberty to build and own ships for trading with 
La Espanola, Porto Rico, Jamaica and the continent; 
for local officials, — justicias of the towns not only of 
Cuba but of the other colonies as well, — they asked 
authority to clear ships from their respective ports 
without the intervention of the governor. They sought 
but failed to establish free trade between the colonies 
of the Indies not only in their own products but in mer- 
chandise originating in Spain for which Santiago 
especially was a distributing center. That harbor was 



80 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

frequented by ships out of Seville with cargoes of rich 
silk; Spain excelled in its manufacture, and their cloth- 
ing of handsome stuffs, their brilliant cloaks and 
taffeta bonnets, were a matter of men's pride, and to 
dress his wife in silk was evidence acceptable in law 
that a husband was a "principal" figure in his commu- 
nity. With the silk came footgear of all varieties and 
white wear, in which connection it is pleasant to note 
that soap was an article of such general necessary con- 
sumption in Cuba that it ranked among the very first 
taxed for revenue. For the Cubenos came trousers, 
shirts, cloaks, alpargatas (a sandal-like coarse shoe), 
cloths to be wrapped around the head less as an orna- 
ment possibly than as padding under burdens; colored 
belts with pouches, and hats, — these two articles being 
the insignia of chiefs! — combs, mirrors, knives, needles 
(trinkets to mitigate a savage's misery!), and for the 
women colored petticoats and beads. I am quoting 
from the ships' manifests of the time across whose 
pages I have seen passing dejected shades in ghostly 
red and yellow skirts of women " commended" to work 
the king's estates! Flour, oils, wine, vinegar, etc., were 
imported in quantities. Duty on imports from Spain 
was 73^2% and Velazquez had been collecting it since 
January 1, 1515. On products of other islands im- 
ported into Cuba it would seem that no duty had been 
collected; the crown agreed that none should be de- 
manded prior to 1517. He could do nothing further 
in this matter because beginning with 1517, — a happy 
period in the island's commercial development, when 
detailed news of new lands found further west over 
which the governor of Cuba was to have jurisdiction 
seemed to make the future of the colony, in commerce, 



FLOW AND HIGH-TIDE OF PROSPERITY (1515-1518) 81 

agriculture and industry of all sorts, brighter yet, — 
he had farmed the customs collections, after competitive 
bidding, to Pedro de Xeres at a little over 21,000 pesos 
gold per annum, for six years (1517-1522, inclusive). 
Duties were to remain payable at the rate of 73^% ; the 
crown could grant exemption and did so, frequently, 
as a mark of favor, which remissions however were 
taken into account in reckoning with the renter (ar- 
rendador del almoxarifazgo) . Regulations were dictated 
with a view to preventing smuggling; they were em- 
bodied in a formal contract in which also it was speci- 
fied that the renter of this revenue as a creditor was to 
be preferred after the crown in collections made of 
dilatory debtors in the fundicion. 

Strenuous collection of debts in the fundicion building 
itself was a source of irritation to its victims. On their 
behalf Narvaez in seeking to reform the custom argued 
that at least a man's miners and the expenses of mining 
should be paid before other creditors received attention. 
It seemed especially objectionable that the royal 
officials should make collections for private persons 
and they were ordered to discontinue the practice. In- 
stead they altered it somewhat. Narvaez too petitioned 
for the establishment of another fundicion in addition to 
Santiago's, Trinidad being preferred, to accommodate 
the mining districts of the west; this, however, seems 
not to have been done. He did succeed, nevertheless, 
in obtaining for the Santiago establishment improved 
equipment which made it unnecessary to rework Cuban 
gold in Seville. The mines were productive. Their 
yield was reckoned at 100,000 pesos yearly; certainly 
during 1517 Velazquez sent 21,000 pesos to the crown, 
the royal fifth of the out-turn. 



82 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Although Diego de Velazquez had opened between 
the towns and from them to the mines trails travelled 
by two-legged black and red, as well as four-legged 
beasts of burden, the island now voiced a demand for 
roads and the crown agreed to pay one-fourth, annually 
until further notice, of the expenditures made for high- 
ways. The settlements were desirous of authority to 
tax themselves for local improvements. The crown 
ordered 500 pesos taken from fines (penas de camara) 
levied by local courts for petty offenses to be spent in 
Santiago to build a wharf. The town needed too a 
reservoir. The island's churches had acquired some 
ornaments, etc.; the crown checked the cost of them 
off against certain debts due to it and ordered leniency 
in collecting others. 

Hog raising first, and the cattle industry next, became 
lucrative. The principal item of earliest exportation 
to Spain was hides; indeed little if anything else was 
sent for a century. With other colonies, notably with 
settlements at Darien, Cuba (especially Santiago and 
seemingly Trinidad) did a good trade in food stuffs, 
i. e., in cazabe. Land therefore began to acquire value 
even when not mineral-bearing and it was evident that 
the municipalities should have definite boundaries if 
the plague of law suits, fostered by an over-supply of 
lawyers, was to be checked (the crown endeavored to 
check it by curtailing their activities) . The settlers had 
asked that the grants, vecindades, of land they held be 
doubled to them in area in the open country and in the 
towns. 

It was at this time that the crown on request of the 
island granted Cuba authority to display, on banners 
and seals, her first coat of arms, — Our Lady of the 



FLOW AND HIGH-TIDE OF PROSPERITY (1515-1518) 83 

Assumption being the most prominent figure in the 
design. 

Not all Cuba's russet and green hills, however, nor 
all her dank eastern forests, her pleasant central plains, 
nor the pineclad slopes of her western mountains, were 
of irresistible charm to those to whom they were first 
portioned out with unmeasured prodigality. The 
Spaniard's contempt for manual labor had been accent- 
uated by his intercourse with Jews and moriscos, who in 
Spain practiced the handicrafts. "The growing reli- 
gious influence of an intolerant priesthood," says Hume, 
"caused the old Christians to look (on such workers) 
with scorn and hatred. From contempt for the worker 
to contempt for the work was an easy transition and the 
Spanish old Christians, whose ancestors for ages had 
lived in a state of war, began to despise industries that 
were mainly carried on by suspected people, living 
apart in their own aljama quarters, oppressed by all 
sorts of restrictions and disabilities from which Span- 
iards of pure blood were free." The pure Spaniard 
come across to Cuba was still what he had always 
been, — an agriculturist only by necessity, a shepherd by 
choice at home and a cattleman here, if an occupation 
were forced upon him, but always a soldier by pref- 
erence. These earliest settlers were therefore pre- 
eminently adventurers by spirit; and they were young. 
They were "solemnly poor" and to them hard metal 
only was real wealth. Many of them were of noble 
affiliation and therefore born to the conviction that to 
work even by proxy for the fortunes they expected of 
the New World was not only uninteresting but actually 
unworthy. The seven cities Velazquez had begun 
were, after all, but seven squalid hamlets, and not a 



84 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

man of adventurous avaricious spirit in them but be- 
stirred himself when Melchor's tales travelled like a 
savannah fire through the island to share in the pillage 
of that strange opulent empire in the west on the 
threshold of which he found to his chagrin that he had 
paused : where gold and silver were used in base utensils, 
all unappreciated by weakling savages whom Prov- 
idence, angered at their vices, was about to deliver with 
all their goods into the hands of Christian true-believers 
that their spiritual and temporal welfare might be 
accomplished by incorporation into the Spanish crown's 
possessions via conversion to the faith. With unre- 
buked pleasures and fabulous profits awaiting strong 
hands to take them, just a little further west, only the 
very poor in spirit were content to remain behind in 
Cuba as masters of diminishing encomiendas to grow 
crops and tend herds and wash river sands that in com- 
parison yielded meagerly of gold. Possession and ex- 
ploitation of "the fairest island human eyes have yet 
beheld" was a dull career for a hearty Spaniard before 
whom opened the conquest of the Aztec empire ! 



CHAPTER VI 

THE EXODUS TO MEXICO (1518-1524) 

Qui nunc augusto componit membra sepulchro 
Prospera sors vivo munera magna dedit; 
Sed quando fuerat capturus maxima dona, 
Quas fecit, fortes eripuere manus. 

Charles V. to Velazquez. 

Five days after Diego de Velazquez had been made 
adelantado over "the new lands" which his emissaries 
had discovered, Hernando Cortes, formerly Velazquez's 
secretary and then with his favor alcalde of Santiago, 
made off (November 18, 1518) out of that harbor with 
the expedition which conquered Mexico. Cortes left 
behind him property and debts in charge of his brother- 
in-law Juan Suarez. In vain Velazquez, appreciating 
too late his captain's character, tried to stop him. 
Fortune crowned Cortes' s audacity. With nine or ten 
good ships in the assembling and provisioning of which 
Velazquez had spent great part of his fortune, the con- 
queror of the Aztec empire sailed away, leaving his 
benefactor calling after him, impotently, from the shore. 
He proceeded along the south coast of Cuba; at Macaca, 
presumably in the Cape Cruz-Manzanilla region, and 
certainly at Trinidad where a hundred of Grijalva's 
men joined him, again at the south shore port which had 
been Havana, and at Guaniguanico in the extreme west, 
Cortes called to take on recruits and to requisition 
supplies. He even seized a trading ship on the high 

85 



86 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

seas. In mid-February of 1519 he cleared from the 
west end of Cuba with five or six hundred good fighting 
men: in Cuba they said that the Indian servitors of 
these, — the pick of their kind and experienced in 
mining, — swelled the number of persons who left the 
island with this expedition to three thousand! 

Having landed at Vera Cruz, Cortes who had no in- 
tention of confining himself to trading with the natives, 
was persuaded (not against his will!) to establish a 
settlement he called La Villa Rica de la Vera Cruz; 
he named its town council and alcalde and to them re- 
signed his appointment under Velazquez, on strength 
of which he had brought these officials into existence, 
whereupon they obligingly named him justicia mayor 
and governor of New Spain (Mexico) for the crown. 
Velazquez's authority so repudiated and the good ships, 
in which Velazquez had a share, burned off shore to 
prevent any detrimental expression of regret for it, 
Cortes proceeded to take strong-handed possession of 
the maxima dona which the prospera sors that gave 
Velazquez much had nevertheless reserved for him. 

Velazquez, so tricked, so cheated of the great prize, 
in his subsequent vain efforts to wrest it from Cortes 
ruined not only himself but also, for the time being, 
the island of Cuba, for he emptied the country of money 
and of men. Doubtless most of those who went to 
Mexico, went willingly; but it was said that he com- 
pelled others to go by threats and by taking their 
encomiendas from them. 

As though it were to make the effect of the exodus 
more obvious, Cuba was at this period (middle of 1519) 
visited by a grievous pestilence. Small-pox and measles 
(leprosy, too, some insisted !) swept the country. In 



THE EXODUS TO MEXICO (1518-1524) 87 

some districts half the natives died; in others, a third 
of them. The island's out-turn of gold fell off accord- 
ingly, and the king was as displeased thereat "as he 
should be." It is not to be supposed that the Spaniards 
themselves were immune from these epidemics. 

Velazquez was wearying the Spanish court with 
demands for justice. Cortes's counter-arguments in his 
own behalf were precisely those always acceptable and 
especially so at this distracted crisis in European 
affairs, — such, for instance, as that ship which in 
August of 1519 Alaminos the pilot took safe past Cuba 
to Spain "ballasted with gold." Putting into Marien 
for supplies he exhibited the quality of his cargo. Juan 
de Rojas, a cousin of Velazquez's resident in Havana, 
informed the governor who bade Gonzalo de Guzman 
capture the brigantine, but in vain he pursued it: 
Gortes's own luck accompanied it safe to Spain. 

Seeking to obtain his own vengeance Velazquez 
summoned all his friends, from La Espanola and else- 
where, to help him reduce Cortes. To this end he 
raised a handsomer fleet than that with which the 
traitor had made away. The authorities in Santo 
Domingo were alarmed at the prospect of bloodshed be- 
tween the contending parties and especially alarmed 
at the possible effect of such strife on the natives every- 
where. Therefore the audiencia sent one of that 
court's first judges, the Licenciado Lucas Vazquez de 
Ayllon, to Cuba (January, 1520) to persuade Velazquez 
to desist. He found the adelantado with his second fleet 
all assembled in the west of Cuba, especially off Cape 
Corrientes. In vain Ayllon advised Velazquez to send 
forward a few ships only which if Cortes failed to listen 
to right and reason should leave the quarrel to the king's 



88 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

justice and push discovery further; in vain he advised 
Velazquez to sell his great stock of provisions to Cortes 
and to use his extra ships to foment coasting trade 
among Cuban settlements and to further business 
between them and settlements elsewhere. Instead, 
early (March?) in 1520 Velazquez sent all to Mexico. 
Velazquez had intended to command the expedition 
in person; Lie. Ayllon claimed to have persuaded him 
that Cuba needed him, the numbers of settlers be- 
ing thinned and the Cubefios restive, so that he con- 
fided it to Panfilo de Narvaez who with Guzman had 
in 1519 returned from his mission at court. Ayllon 
himself went with the fleet, "to keep the peace" in 
Mexico, he said. 

Narvaez was still the "careless leader" las Casas 
had found him ten years before. The "thirteen very 
good ships" of this fleet, the "thousand" Spaniards, 
and meat in such quantities that the hog ranches of the 
island were obliterated, according to Cuba's com- 
plaints, — the horses, and the cannon, too, — everything 
that Velazquez had entrusted to him, all came after 
a stormy voyage to Cortes's hands like reinforcements, 
as did two more caravels and a brigantine which fol- 
lowed later. Narvaez, minus an eye lost in the skir- 
mish in which Cortes obtained possession of him and 
his, was held a prisoner. His wife Maria de Valenzuela, 
meantime, in charge of his property at Bayamo, was 
administering it profitably. 

"And in these days people left from many parts of 
Cuba to go to Cortes, because of the news of riches 
in that land, and he gave generously to all, and was 
beloved by all who served under him, and Diego de 
Velazquez was abhorred," as Oviedo records it. 



THE EXODUS TO MEXICO (1518-1524) 89 

At about this juncture too a hurricane blew up, — 
roaring wind and swirling rain in such a passion as 
those who have seen tropical Nature indulge in do not 
forget: trees were broken and uprooted, rivers burst 
from their beds and the seas ignored their boundaries. 
Houses were levelled, their materials scattered like 
straws indeed; crops were wiped from the fields, and 
"what cattle had remained" were laid dead on the 
ranges. 

The admiral, Diego Colon, Velazquez's superior in 
Santo Domingo, had certainly not been rendered more 
friendly toward him by the independence he had shown 
in prosperity; it was but to be expected that now he 
should make the most of the adelantado's manifold 
misfortunes. He appointed the Licenciado Alonso de 
Zuazo to investigate Velazquez's conduct in office and 
to supersede him as governor's lieutenant in Cuba. 
The city council of Santiago received Zuazo on Jan- 
uary 18th, 1521. 

That it did receive him, and governors thereafter, 
is an interesting detail. Panfilo de Narvaez as general 
procurador for the island had in 1518 requested that, 
in order that the settlements of Cuba might be better 
governed, he said, the crown should make the office of 
regidor (councilman) lifehold. Agreeing, on Decem- 
ber 12 of that same year Charles named Diego de 
Samano and Gonzalo de Guzman, for Santiago; Ber- 
naldino Yniguez and Alonso Benbrilla, for Trinidad; 
Panfilo de Narvaez and Francisco Santa Cruz for San 
Salvador de Bayamo, to be regidor es perpetuos. Diego 
de Caballero and Fernando de Medina, appointed in 
1519, would seem to have been the first so named for 
Sancti Spiritus, and Rodrigo Cafion and Sancho de 



90 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Urrutia for Santa Maria del Puerto de Principe. I take 
it that for a while the governor of the colony continued 
to appoint, in addition to these "perpetual" council- 
men, enough others to complete a determined number 
in each municipality; their tenure of the office was, of 
course, terminable. The royal officials immediately 
(March 18, 1521, for example) expressed a desire to be 
councilmen, to be present at all deliberations of matters 
touching the island's welfare; they declared that it 
was advisable " since justicia is the admiral's," and the 
crown agreed. The king made them regidores perpetuos 
of Santiago in cedulas entirely apart from those appoint- 
ing them treasurer, accountant and factor respectively, 
and it became customary so to honor incumbents in 
these offices. 

Cristobal de Cuellar was dead; he had made Velaz- 
quez his residuary legatee. Pedro Nunez de Guzman 
who succeeded him as treasurer, being an encomendero 
in La Espanola had been relieved of his Indians there 
while he was serving the crown in wars against the 
Caribs in Porto Rico (law suits in consequence were 
pending!) and he had seen campaigning in Flanders 
too before he settled down in Cuba, now, to become 
shortly an affluent colonist. Ortuno de Insunsolo was 
dead. Bernaldino de Velazquez, nephew of the gover- 
nor and already an established resident in Santiago, 
succeeded him as factor. Amador de Lares was dead; 
Andres de Duero (a merchant-trader in whose company 
Cortes made money) served the office pro tern but royal 
appointment gave it to Pedro de Paz, a former vecino 
of La Espanola. In 1519 the crown had commissioned 
Pedro de Isasaga to audit the accounts of the royal 
officials in the Indies; at the end of February, 1521, 



THE EXODUS TO MEXICO (1518-1524) 91 

Isasaga turned his work in Porto Rico over to another 
and came on to Cuba. He departed in May, 1522. Pre- 
sumably his 'visit set collections and accounts with the 
crown in order, though subsequent auditors expressed 
regret to find little permanent evidence of any such 
effect. 

It is not likely that Narvaez, in asking in 1518 that 
regidores perpetuos be appointed, was moved primarily 
by any unselfish desire to see Cuba well governed. 
It is far more likely that the intention was to strengthen 
a clique by making its members irremovable from the 
town councils. Certainly these became close and selfish 
oligarchies, just as they had done in Spain. Unfor- 
tunately the quantity and the continuity of the docu- 
ments I have seen for this troubled year or so in Cuba's 
history are unsatisfactory; so, comparatively, scarce 
and scattered are the papers I have found relating to 
Zuazo's brief administration I am inclined to write 
after every assertion I may make concerning it, "S. E. 
O.," salvo error u omision. There is indication that 
Velazquez and his friends in the Santiago council im- 
mediately made trouble for the second governor of 
Cuba; there is also evidence that they found him amen- 
able to Velazquez's influence as repartidor of encomien- 
das. The day after the council received him Velazquez 
entered protest against Zuazo's in the least infringing 
on his authority as warden of the fort at Baracoa (which 
probably no longer existed) or as repartidor of the na- 
tives of the island. In evidence that this office was 
still solely Velazquez's was presented his royal ap- 
pointment thereto dated May 13, 1513, and confirmed 
November 13, 1518. The office of repartidor carried 
more effective power with it than that of governor and 



92 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

this Velazquez meant to retain. Within a month the 
royal officials complained to the crown that Zuazo had 
named lieutenants who in advance of them boarded 
arriving vessels, which was "not convenient"; the 
crown disapproved Zuazo's action in this, reprimanding 
Colon severely, — 'and so made its debut a cause for 
quarrel which stood other royal officials and other 
governors in good stead for a hundred years thereafter! 

Before February, 1522, Don Diego Colon himself 
and two judges of the Santo Domingo audiencia (Lie. 
Marcelo and Lie. Juan Ortiz de Matienzo) had arrived 
in Santiago. One cedula says they came to punish 
certain delinquencies. The admiral conducted a secret 
investigation into Velazquez's administration (pesquisa 
secreta), findings in which the crown demanded to see 
in order to be informed of what really was transpiring. 
Part of the admiral's and oidores' (judges') business 
concerned the bankruptcy of Pedro de Xeres, renter 
of the customs. 

Velazquez still insisted that no man had authority 
to interfere with him as royally appointed repartidor 
of the natives, and surely the wording of his commission 
justified him, but Colon and the judges harked back 
to that provision in it according to which they (named 
therein as they were by name) might furnish the re- 
partidor with written signed advice how to use the 
office, and now they handed him that advice embodied 
in certain "instructions" he was ordered to follow in 
making encomiendas. These "instructions" were cried 
"in high and intelligible voice by Miguel de Medina, 
crier of the said city (of Santiago) from before the doors 
of the chief church of the said city which is on the public 
plaza," Velazquez being among the listeners. They 



THE EXODUS TO MEXICO (1518-1524) 93 

seem to have become the law in the matter of repar- 
timiento, but just as there was nothing in Velazquez's 
commission to compel him to take the advice of the 
admiral and the judges even when so forcefully de- 
livered, so merely that they were the law in Cuba need 
not be taken as conclusive evidence that these " instruc- 
tions" were enforced. There is much to indicate that 
they were not observed. 

Velazquez, a rich man still despite the fact that his 
resources had been reduced by the cost of equipping 
two armadas, seems to have been busy during Zuazo's 
intrusion in raising a third. By the end of 1522 he was 
heavily in debt to the crown who in view of his serv- 
ices ordered leniency in collections from him. The 
historian Herrera says that Velazquez sailed from Cuba 
in personal command of this third expedition but was 
persuaded to turn back without landing upon that 
territory over which he was adelantado in name only. 
This may have been the case, for certainly he was ab- 
sent from Santiago at various times. Again, however, 
he may be glimpsed occupying himself with Cuba's af- 
fairs. For instance, certain very interesting, original 
documents I have seen, bearing Velazquez's own signa- 
ture, show that in the summer of 1523 certain natives 
he describes as indios cayos (key Indians), had killed 
Spaniards, which moved his "spirit and heart to com- 
passion and pain." They also destroyed property, 
among other being an estate belonging to Rodrigo de 
Tamayo, whom Velazquez commissioned to make war 
against them. His health permitting, Velazquez had a 
mind to go to Bayamo personally to assist. 

Gonzalo de Guzman, procurador, who returned to 
Cuba with Narvaez in 1519, must have recrossed the 



94 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

seas immediately, for in August, 1520, he was at court 
again and less active as the island's advocate than as the 
very special representative of the governor versus his 
enemies especially, at this crisis, Colon. For the set- 
tlers, however, Guzman secured a confirmation of 
titles to real estate theretofore issued by governors of 
Cuba (presumably meaning particularly Velazquez) or 
by the town councils, which bodies had assumed (with 
precedent) the prerogative of granting lands. He suc- 
ceeded, too, in getting the crown to reduce the royal 
share of gold mined from a fifth to a tenth : the moving 
argument was that pestilence had reduced the number 
of Cubeno miners. July 10, 1521, Velazquez made out a 
power of attorney to his cousin Manuel de Rojas 
authorizing him to represent him at court with respect 
to Mexico. On December 15, 1521, the officials of 
Seville were instructed to facilitate Guzman's return 
to Cuba in all haste: he was on the crown's business. 
On December 23 the crown ordered Velazquez restored 
completely to his office of governor's lieutenant in Cuba. 
If by any chance he were absent from Santiago when 
the cedula to this effect arrived there Gonzalo de 
Guzman was to be received as such in his stead, and 
presumably Guzman hurried these provisions to Cuba. 

There is some evidence that after Zuazo Gonzalo 
Dovalle acted as governor of Cuba, though on what 
authority or for how long are points I have not been 
able to clear up. 

The Lie. Zuazo who was thus summarily ousted from 
office had been despatched to La Espanola in the fall of 
1516 with a royal commission bestowing upon him very 
extensive civil and criminal jurisdiction within that 
island. In due course another judge arrived to in- 



THE EXODUS TO MEXICO (1518-1524) 95 

vestigate his administration (i. e., a tomarle residencia) , 
and it was while this investigation was in progress that 
Diego Colon sent Zuazo to Cuba to make a similar 
examination into Velazquez's conduct in his office and 
to succeed him as governor's lieutenant there. Al- 
though in 1517 the crown had been of a renewed mind 
to residenciar (i. e., investigate) Velazquez, and pro- 
vided the Jeronimites in Santo Domingo with blank 
appointment of a judge to undertake the task, which 
commission they seem not to have used, he nevertheless 
resented that Diego Colon should have undertaken the 
business. On September 10, 1521, he declared Zuazo's 
commission null and void on the ground that while his 
own residencia was unfinished he was ineligible to the 
office Colon proffered and, moreover, to name jueces 
(judges) de residencia was a crown prerogative. There- 
fore all that Zuazo had done in Cuba as juez de resid- 
encia, since to be such he had no legal authority, and as 
governor's lieutenant, since he was not eligible to that 
office, was to be entirely disregarded. The crown 
ordered all matters restored to precisely the status in 
which Zuazo had found them upon assuming office. 
Zuazo continued to reside in Santiago until early in 
January, 1524, when he sailed for Mexico as the special 
emissary of Francisco de Garay. Garay, governor of 
Jamaica, had been made governor and captain-general 
over Panuco, and in June, 1523, he left Jamaica with a 
handsome armada and a brilliant company, his objec- 
tive being his new jurisdiction. He put in at Xagua 
(Cienfuegos), Cuba, en route and there learned that 
Cortes had already taken possession of Panuco. He 
wrote to Velazquez and to Zuazo, at Santiago, and 
Zuazo, considered fitted to the task because he was a 



96 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

lawyer, agreed to represent Garay in a conference with 
Cortes in hopes to prevent a conflict between them. On 
this mission Zuazo sailed, as said, from Santiago in 
January, 1524; he was wrecked on the way and endured 
heart-breaking hardships, but eventually he did reach 
Mexico and rose to enviable position there under Cortes, 
from which estate, on the strength of what he said were 
false charges, he was fetched a prisoner in chains to 
Cuba to answer in a second residencia for his adminis- 
tration in this island, in the course of which investiga- 
tion, he complained, he endured affronts and ill treat- 
ment. He had already been cleared, by Colon, in one 
residencia. When, after he had returned to La Es- 
panola, still another investigation into the same matter 
was ordered, he protested that it was too much, and the 
crown agreeing, the third residencia was dropped (1526). 
Zuazo appears to have resumed his seat on the audien- 
cia's bench at Santo Domingo and to have owned a 
sugar plantation in that island when he died there in 
1539. Garay, meanwhile, having further depleted 
Cuba's population by recruiting, pressed on to Mexico 
only to meet misfortune there. 

His offices can have been but irritating honors to 
Velazquez now, for, on October 22, 1522, Charles had 
made Cortes his governor over Mexico and commanded 
Velazquez neither to go nor to send any expedition to 
trouble further the brilliant Marquis del Valle, once his 
very humble servant but now ennobled far above him 
by success. This royal mandate was proclaimed by 
crier in the streets of Santiago in May, 1523, "and this 
was the conclusion of the ruin of Diego de Velazquez." 

It would seem that he was preparing to go to Spain to 
enter protest in his own behalf when, on June 11th or 



THE EXODUS TO MEXICO (1518-1524) 97 

12th, of 1524, he received an imperative summons to a 
Higher Court than Spain's. He asked to be buried 
by the altar steps in the cathedral of Santiago to which 
he left a bequest in his will. His king composed him an 
epitaph, moved to Latin poetry by consideration of his 
faithful and intelligent service. " Honoris cupidus, 
pecuniae aliquanto cupidior" wrote another Latin quill 
at court, and so the memory of his short-comings and 
his misfortunes lived after him, rather than any rec- 
ollection of his good traits. Certainly he was an able 
governor, — gratitude and impartiality are not to be 
expected of him for they were not charactertistic of his 
kind nor of his time; only the madness out of Mexico 
destroyed him. Cuba forgot not only the date of his 
demise, long in controversy, but even the site of his 
interment. In making excavations in the cathedral on 
November 26, 1810, a stone said to be his memorial 
tablet was found and what are cherished as defaced 
pieces of it I have seen in the museum of Santiago. No 
monument exists in ail the island, I think, to the mem- 
ory of its conquering, colonizing first governor. 

His death closed what may, perhaps, be considered 
the first period of the colony's history. Within his 
lifetime Spaniards had found, and possessed themselves 
of Cuba and Cubenos; even before he died they had 
begun to abandon both to a long decline. The star of 
empire had taken its way westward and this island had 
become but a way-port between Spain and the Amer- 
ican continents. 



FOREWORD TO BOOK II 

Principal sources for statements herein made relative 
to the history of Cuba from 1524 to 1550 are the 
cedularios, — 139-1-6, 139-1-7, and 79-4-1 continuing 
into 79-4-2. A serious hiatus occurs between the last 
cedulas preserved in 139-1-7 and the first in 79-4-1; 
apparently a volume is missing. I could not find it at 
Seville. Equal to the cedularios in importance if not in 
bulk are documents which originated in the island, 
preserved in 54-1-15; 54-1-32; 54-1-34; 54-2-2. 
Other packages of documents in the Archives in exam- 
ination of which data have been found are: 1-1-2/16; 
1-2-1/21; 1-2-2/18; 1-2-8/28; 1-4-5/10; 2-1-1/20; 
2-1-1/25; 2-1-2/21; 2-1-2/26; 2-1-3/22; 2-2-5/5; 
2-4-1/9; 2-5-1/14; 2-5-1/22; 2-5-2/10; 2-5-3; 2-6-1; 
2-6-2; 2-6-6; 46-4-1/33; 47-1-19; 47-1-1/11; 47-1- 
2/29; 47-1-4; 47-1-19; 47-2-8/3; 47-2-23/18; 47-2- 
25/20; 47-2-26/21; 47-2-27/22; 47-2-28/23; 47-2-3 1/26; 
47-2-32/27; 50-1-31/7; 51-5-2/12; 51-5-5/15; 51-5- 
6/16; 51-5-7/17; 51-5-8/18; 53-1-7; 53-1-9; 53-1-10; 
53-3-60/2; 53-4-1; 53-4-9; 53-6^; 53-6-7; 53-6-8; 
54-1-9; 54-1-11; 54-3-4; 54-3-6; 54-3-15; 54-3-19; 
58-3-7; 78-2-1; 85-3-1; 87-6-1; 87-6-2; 139-1-8; 
139-1-9; 139-1-10; 139-7-5; 139-7-14; 140-3-1; 140- 
3-9; 140-7-31; 141-7-1; 143-3-11; 143-3-12; 144-1-9; 
144-1-10; 144-1-11; 144-1-12; 144-1-14; 144-1-15; 
145-1-9; 147-2-11; 147-2-12; 148-1-13; 148-2-3; 
148-2-4; 148-2-5; 148-2-6; 154-1-8; 155-4-16. In 

99 



100 FOREWORD TO BOOK II 

some of these ninety-four packages there are many 
documents of value, in others few, while in others still 
only casual and unimportant mention of Cuban affairs 
will be found, but in all there is reference to the island, 
no matter what investigation of the labels may show 
the packages to be branded to contain. 

What printed books have been used are invariably 
mentioned in the text. 

I. A. W. 



BOOK II 
CHAPTER VII 

THE RISE OF LOCAL PATRIOTISM (1524-1528) 

"The original Iberian tradition, — a powerful tendency . . . 
to assert individual liberty and localize patriotism." — Hume, 
The Spanish People. 

Through very many years following Velazquez's 
death, Cuba continued in a long decline. Her affairs 
fell into the hands of her own colonists. At first the 
situation seemed to hold promise of excellent things. 
Although the whole drift of Spanish political life in the 
sixteenth century was toward the strengthening of the 
power of the crown, there now appeared in Cuba a spo- 
radic tendency in the opposite direction, and like a 
tremor from convulsions in Spain itself a demand for 
representative government stirred through the island 
and out of the loyalest of Spaniards were evolved the 
first Cubans, — even more loyal ! Foremost among them 
was Manuel de Rojas, Velazquez's cousin who succeeded 
him as governor. 

Rojas was a vecino of Bayamo and he had an en- 
comienda there. He was known at court where he had 
recently represented Diego de Velazquez near the king. 
The audiencia of Santo Domingo seems formally to 
have appointed Rojas to be governor's lieutenant of 
Cuba, Colon in whom the power to do so vested being 

101 



102 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

absent in Spain at the time; certainly he filled the office 
until March, 1.525, and on October 20th, 1524, the 
audiencia exceeded its authority in naming him also 
reparlidor of Cubcnos, an office bestowal of which lay 
with the king alone. Rojas also drew some pay as 
alcalde of Baracoa. 

Manuel de Rojas was the first (unless Velazquez him- 
self be reckoned a member) of a very notable family, 
distinguished for its merits in Spain and in all the 
Americas as well; in him now it began to assume a 
dominance in Cuba's affairs which it held through many 
a generation thereafter in the name of Rojas, Ynestrosa, 
Cepero, Soto, etc., etc., to variations through marriage 
and intermarriage which are problems for the geneal- 
ogist, not the historian. The family's preeminence was 
deserved, for its members were remarkable for prudence, 
fair-mindedness and industry. As Cubans,— for such 
they became, and the very earliest of their kind, by 
thorough adoption first and later by birth, — they made 
the island their own, and the grateful land's response 
to them was an immediate and considerable prosperity. 
They were not alone in their good work; associated 
with them old records name especially Alonso Sanchez 
del Corral of Sancti Spiritus; Porcallo de Figueroa of 
Camaguey, and two Paradas and Rodrigo Tainayo 
of Bayamo. 

Rich men of the colony located at Santiago were 
Gonzalo de Guzman; Nunez de Guzman, the treasurer 
(these two were brothers-in-law); the accountant Pero 
de Paz; Andres Duero and Diego de Soto. Secure in 
title to lands they had, they held natives encomendados, 
and not only washed for gold in the rivers and mined 
the bald hills where it was found in veins, but they bred 



THE RISE OF LOCAL PATRIOTISM (1524-1528) 103 

horned cattle now as well as hogs, cultivated fields and 
sold crops and meat and horses and mules to the 
conquest-crazed expeditionaries who made Cuba a 
way-station en route to the continent. Their enemies 
alleged that they constituted a "trust" in restraint of 
trade. In their ships, thanks to those privileges Nar- 
vaez had secured for the colony when he was procurador 
at court, they followed up traffic with the growing 
settlements in Mexico, in Venezuela, Honduras and 
on the isthmus of Darien, and with Porto Rico, La 
Espanola and Jamaica. Not only were they well 
acquainted with each other and all their business 
interests identical, but they were amazingly inter- 
related. "One being scratched, all bled." In every one 
of the six other settlements they had their kin, their 
agents and their emulators. Spaniards by birth, these 
colonists had nevertheless become in twelve years of 
hardship more closely identified with Cuba than they 
were with the land of their nativity: "local patriotism" 
had come into existence. 

The interests of men like these had been neglected in 
Spain during Velazquez's quarrels with Cortes; there 
turmoil and bloodshed of social revolution were ravag- 
ing the peninsula at the commencement of the reign of 
the Fleming, Charles V. "of Germany." At home in 
the island every Calamity had visited them, — "loss, 
pestilence, storm and departing armadas, followed one 
after another, . . . events unimaginable, entirely out- 
side the scope of human foresight . . . miseries and 
calamities," as the lessee of the collection of Cuba's 
customs exclaimed when the general misfortune which 
oppressed Cuba at this date overwhelmed him and his 
bondsmen in failure and its aftermath of reclamation for 



104 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

debt. Gonzalo de Guzman, procurador at court for 
Velazquez against Cortes and Colon, himself seeking 
appointments in Yucatan and Cozumel, was not repre- 
sentative of those other colonists (though they con- 
tributed to pay his expenses), who because they had 
already had enough of adventure or because they had 
never owned a stomach for hardship and slaughter or 
because they were endowed with common sense to 
appreciate what they had safely in hand, were inter- 
ested first in Cuba and only secondarily in "the new 
lands." 

They seem to have been better represented near the 
king in 1522 and 1523 by Juan Mosquera who secured 
for them free trade with neighboring islands and the 
mainland, the contract with Pedro de Xeres, renter of 
the collection of customs, having expired thereby re- 
moving an obstacle to that concession. The household 
belongings of immigrating families were now exempt 
from all duty. Mosquera voiced again the colony's 
demand for roads, and action was taken looking to the 
levying of a considerable tax to raise funds for public 
works. At his instance the crown ordered penas de 
camara (fines for minor offences) to a total of 250,000 
maravedis to be expended on such improvements, each 
municipality to dispose of its own share; later when this 
concession was about to expire it was extended five 
years from date of original termination, the money to 
be spent on roads and town halls, each jurisdiction dis- 
posing of its own funds. Further, on his representations, 
it was now ordered that the fundicion should open for 
business four days every two months, instead of once a 
year (refundicion every five months). This was con- 
sidered a measure of financial relief. It will be recalled 



THE RISE OF LOCAL PATRIOTISM (1524-1528) 105 

that the king had previously ordered his officials to 
cease to collect in the fundicion payment of other 
accounts than his; they obeyed by attending to the 
matter (the governor himself acting with them!) not 
inside the fundicion itself but in an anteroom at its very 
door. Seated there on behalf of their creditors, the four 
most formidable officers in the island had constituted 
"a grievance and a weariness" to the mine-owners of 
the colony. Mosquera got from the crown a ruling that 
what gold remained to a man after he had settled with 
the authorities inside the fundicion was his own; cred- 
itors assembled outside were referred to the courts for 
justice. To Mosquera's activities at this time was due 
the first official action taken (February 13, 1523) 
toward establishing the sugar industry in Cuba. That 
industry was already favored and prosperous in La 
Espanola, and in imitation of measures taken there the 
crown now called on the royal officials of Cuba for a list 
of persons here who commanded natural facilities, — the 
lands and the water necessary for plantations, — with a 
view to distributing among them four thousand cas- 
tellanos as a loan. I have seen no evidence that the 
money was advanced nor any to indicate that any 
serious attempt was made at this time to foster the 
manufacture of sugar. 

Charles, meanwhile, had on May 20th, 1524, made 
the Licenciatus Juan Altamirano governor's lieutenant 
of Cuba, Colon concurring, for a term of two years, and 
juez de residencia to investigate Velazquez. This was 
usual procedure. Arrived in Santiago, Altamirano's 
appointment was proclaimed by crier on March 14th, 
1525, and he took possession of his offices. Still follow- 
ing the accustomed routine, he then invited all who had 



106 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

complaints to make against Velazquez to formulate 
them without fear: the invitation was published in all 
the settlements. He summoned a cloud of witnesses and 
to them put a long series of questions based on all the 
adverse reports that had accumulated through years, 
especially as these were listed in a document left at 
court by Juan Mosquera; this interrogatorio was cal- 
culated to draw out evidence of misconduct on the part 
of the governor and of all who had held offices on his 
authority. The royal officials were subjected to similar 
examination. For months notaries earned wages 
setting down testimony which, read at almost four 
centuries' distance, seems burdened with ludicrous 
trivialities. Velazquez, asleep under the cathedral's 
flags, was not awakened by notifications or summons 
read to its congregations and posted upon its doors, by 
charges that he had accepted gifts (of scarlet cloth and 
velvet bonnets, of a chestnut horse and a gray mule), 
levied taxes for public works and public festivities 
without due authority from the crown so to do, gambled 
"for cash," as Manuel de Rojas confessed, "with other 
honorable citizens," tolerated blasphemies, failed to pay 
for provisions his armadas to Mexico took, administered 
justice without nice regard for law, "being no lawyer," 
distributed Cubenos with partiality to his friends, and 
permitted these natives to be taken away from the 
island. Nor was he disturbed by announcement of 
fines imposed in consequence of these charges, much as 
adverse sentences concerned his heirs among whom 
was Gonzalo de Guzman. Velazquez's spirit, however, 
persisted above ground, — less domitable than the 
flesh! — and provided the Licenciatus Altamirano with 
more trouble than he could cope. 



THE RISE OF LOCAL PATRIOTISM (1524-1528) 107 

He found it animating the town councils, strongholds 
of the same "local patriotism" resentful of outside 
interference which had made Zuazo uncomfortable. 
Altamirano encountered it especially in the most im- 
portant council of all, that of Santiago, where, he 
alleged, Velazquez foreseeing a resideneia had cleverly- 
entrenched, in part behind royal lifehold appointments 
which could not be cancelled, the two Guzmans, Paz, 
Duero and Soto, all his fast good friends, in a position 
to defend themselves, each other, him and all their 
faction. Altamirano found it necessary to suspend 
them from office, their duties to be discharged tem- 
porarily by two persons they might select against whom 
no accusations existed such as he formulated against 
them of expending funds without authorization. 

Not content merely to defend, these colonists even 
assumed the aggressive and at this time, doubtless 
influenced by recent tragic events in Spain where towns 
and guilds had been fighting for privileges till hope of 
representative government was lost in the rout of 
Villalar, they acquired for the municipal councils con- 
firmation of independence to which these bodies had 
not before been justly entitled. Through the last six 
years of Velazquez's life the councils seem to have 
widened their jurisdiction. Possibly the governor, 
interested in Mexico, made no attempt to defend the 
prerogatives of his office. It is even conceivable that 
he gladly delegated his authority to lieutenants and 
alcaldes who in relieving him of the task of attending 
to Cuba's affairs created important precedents and 
established customs. Certainly he even permitted 
alcaldes ordinarios to encroach upon his once so highly 
prized privileges as repartidor of Cubefios. 



108 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Formerly the governor had appointed all alcaldes and 
they presided in his absence and further absence of his 
lieutenant over the councils which had been originally 
wholly his appointment but were now so only in such 
part as the crown failed to fill by way of regidores per- 
petuos. Now the councils, part of whose membership 
was irremovable (save by death or resignation), elected 
the alcaldes who presided apparently without a vote, 
and now, too, the cabildo asserted what seems to have 
been a theretofore disregarded fact, — that the governor 
and his lieutenant had no right to attend its sessions. 
The audiencia of Santo Domingo ordered Altamirano 
not to enter council meetings. He protested, citing 
that all his predecessors had done so, and he forbade 
the justicia and regidores to assemble without him: 
Nevertheless the crown sustained the audiencia's 
ruling, evidently because it upheld a preceding cedula 
in the same sense which had been ignored by Velazquez 
and his immediate successors. Presently, citing specif- 
ically this instance of their defence of the cabildo's 
liberties, the regidores petitioned to be paid salaries 
because their strenuous public duties interfered with 
profitable prosecution of their private business. I 
have not found that any salary was ever (within the 
period covered by this work) assigned to the office of 
regidor though later it does become evident that by way 
of percentages, fees, etc., the post was made profitable 
to its occupant. 

In October, 1525, Rodrigo Duran representing 
Santiago and the rest of Cuba appeared before the 
audiencia in Santo Domingo to enter charges against 
Altamirano. Complaints had reached the crown also 
who by December 1st had decided that Gonzalo de 



THE RISE OF LOCAL PATRIOTISM (1524-1528) 109 

Guzman should take the licenciatus' s residencia and 
succeed him as governor's lieutenant in Cuba. The 
authorities in Santo Domingo were advised to this 
effect. The crown issued Guzman's commission as 
juez de residencia, Colon having made him governor's 
lieutenant; it was forwarded to him through the au- 
dienca. He was also made repartidor of Cubefios with 
the same powers Velazquez had had. Assuming office 
on April 25, 1526, Guzman proceeded to put Altamirano 
through the usual routine, irritating investigation, 
beginning it on August 1, 1526; many impassioned 
charges were made against him but, — which explains 
why Altamirano himself had requested a residencia, — 
on appeal from Guzman's light sentences they were 
finally adjudged to be without foundation in any real 
culpability and, as the crown later remarked with 
some indignation, Cuba's vecinos were discovered to 
have raised against the licenciatus a disturbance by no 
means justified. From Cuba Altamirano went to 
Mexico. 

The conceit of the councils and of all the colonists of 
Cuba cannot have failed to augment mightily because 
of the selection for the highest offices in the land, of a 
simple regidor, vecino of Santiago. Guzman very soon 
requested a salary for his services; the crown bade the 
vireine pay him such, but there is evidence that she did 
not do so. Guzman was instructed to appoint but one 
lieutenant, as Velazquez had at first done, to reside in 
distant Havana, instead of several elsewhere as well, 
as it seems the adelantado did toward the end of his 
governorship; this was a measure to insure free scope 
for the activities of alcaldes ordinarios as judges of first 
instance. When ordered to observe the law which for- 



110 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

bade him to attend sessions of the council of Santiago, 
Guzman protested and secured for himself (but not for 
governor's lieutenants in general) permission to be 
present at its meetings, although there was some delay 
in delivery of this cedula and probably also in its enforce- 
ment. 

At this same period the crown made a couple of dozen 
additional appointments to offices of regidores perpetuos 
in the seven town councils of Cuba. What members 
may yet have held such posts by the governor's grace 
were surely now crowded out by those persons the 
crown preferred. 

Rapidly as the town councils had achieved impor- 
tance, now the district procuradores developed as a 
check not only upon them but upon all existing func- 
tionaries. Exercising a right inherited from Rome, 
formally recognized by the Spanish crown (in 1519 and 
again in 1528) as appertaining to the cities and settle- 
ments of the Indies, the seven wide municipalities 
which Velazquez created had been naming their ad- 
vocates (procuradores), electing them at this time out 
of the councils. These advocates were the municipal- 
ities' champions, "to attend to their affairs and defend 
them." At this period their most obvious service was 
rendered when they met together yearly during the 
fundicion at Santiago, to discuss their districts' needs 
and formulate petitions to the crown which were sent as 
a letter or presented in person by whatever emissary 
(not necessarily one of themselves) the procuradores 
chose, empowered and paid, for the purpose. To the 
meeting of procuradores held in Santiago in the spring 
(February 24th to March 17th) of 1528 Manuel de 
Rojas representing Bayamo presented protests and 



THE RISE OF LOCAL PATRIOTISM (1524-1528) 111 

proposals which were in essence the expression of pop- 
ular resentment of a growing tendency toward oligarchy 
in the colony's administration, — against an overlord- 
ship (senorio) of the councils with respect to other 
"honorable residents/' who objected, they said, to 
being considered councils' vassals. 

His presentment of these proposals did not meet with 
the unanimous approval of the other procuradores; in 
fact at one point Juan Bono de Quexo representing 
Havana bolted the assembly in protest against them, 
but they nevertheless prevailed in the communication 
drawn for the king under date of March 17th. Therein 
it was suggested that governors of the colony be ap- 
pointed by the crown for three year terms from among 
the settlers themselves; that the office of regidor be no 
longer lifehold; but, instead, along with those of alcalde 
and procurador, be made elective, the colonists to choose 
incumbents for yearly terms; and that the latter ad- 
vocates be given ample powers and required to con- 
tinue to meet annually. It may have been true, as 
Hume says, that in April, 1521, "the hope of represent- 
ative government in Castile" died for two hundred and 
ninety years to come, but in Cuba that result of Spain's 
ill-directed resentment of Flemish Charles was not 
immediately evident. The revelation came later. 

Charles himself had learned much of Spanish char- 
acter since, from Flanders, he watched sweep the 
peninsula that conflagration which was war of the 
communes in one portion and the even more sharply 
defined social conflict of the germania in another. 
Therefore he adopted in part the suggestions now made 
by the procuradores of Cuba for changes in their local 
government. While the governor continued to be 



112 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Admiral Colon's lieutenant and appointee and regidores 
were still named for life, and tenure of the offices of 
treasurer, accountant and factor was not, as Rojas 
had asked, made incompatible with membership in the 
town council, nevertheless the hold these had on the 
alcaldes was loosened, in the following peculiar manner : 
it was ordered that on a day, each year, which the 
governor should select (and it appears he chose New 
Year's), the cabildo in meeting should nominate two 
candidates for the alcaldia from among its members, the 
governor and his lieutenant also nominating one and the 
regidores two more; the five names were to be put "into 
a pot" and a passing child called in to draw forth two, 
the first drawn to be first alcalde for a year to come, 
and the other to be his second. More important than 
this, however, on the same date (November 6, 1528) it 
was provided that thereafter on a day the governor 
should select (again, it was New Year's) all the people 
should meet together at the town hall and by popular 
vote choose their own procurador for the twelve months 
to follow. His powers were large. He could institute 
suits and appeal them from the audiencia at Santo 
Domingo to the council for the Indies which Charles 
had organized in Spain to handle his New World 
affairs, and he could lay complaints before the crown 
against the city council, governor or royal officials 
without informing them of the nature of his accusa- 
tions. 

Other petitioners were now required to bring with 
them a report from local authorities upon their demands 
for privileges to undertake discoveries, for land grants, 
and the like, because the king had found it unwise to 
heed or act on unsupported reports of individuals since 



THE RISE OF LOCAL PATRIOTISM (1524-1528) 113 

some sacrificed truth to their own ends. Governor 
Guzman later attempted to interpret this requirement 
in a manner to enable him to obtain information as to 
the complaints procuradores and royal officials sent to 
Spain against him, but the crown ordered him to respect 
the privacy of their communications. 

This much, then, Manuel de Rojas had gained: "all 
the people" had a voice in the monarch's ear and against 
subsequent protests of officials whom they annoyed, 
the crown maintained the independence of Cuba's 
procuradores. 

Rojas' achievement in this respect, and the fact that 
Gonzalo Guzman, a colonist, was governor as other 
colonists had been before him, plus the further detail 
that the royal officials and other regidores were also 
colonists, makes it evident that the settlers at this period 
exercised dominant influence in the island's affairs. 
" Local patriotism" was ascendant. The first Cubans 
were in the making and already they possessed an 
importance in their own political administration which 
they defended thereafter by every means, fair and 
foul, against outsiders regardless of their category. 
Let the reader observe, however, that this defence 
at no time took on any taint of disloyalty to the crown 
even when it became resistance to the crown's direct 
representatives. Hume has identified the mainspring 
of a Spaniard's action to be passionate aspiration to 
individual distinction through sacrifice; never was his 
meaning better exemplified than in Cubans who, thus 
early, showed that their particular sacrifice was alle- 
giance to the crown, — an almost abject allegiance which 
nevertheless was entirely compatible with " local pa- 
triotism" and also with "the original Iberian tradi- 



114 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

tion" of individual liberty. There is a point of view in 
this which may not be dismissed as a contradiction; 
it must be borne steadily in mind if the development 
of the island's history is to be comprehended by minds 
not Spanish in their conformations. 



CHAPTER VIII 

GONZALO DE GUZMAN AND JUAN DE VADILLO (1526-1532) 

"Gonzalo de Guzman esta tan aposesionado asi de haciendas 
corno de indios, que aunque otra cosa no ubiese sino estar el tan 
senor poderoso, era causa bastante para que Vuestra Magestad 
con toda brevedad mandase proveer como el dicho Gonzalo de 
Guzman no tuviese los dichos cargos (de teniente de gobernador y 
repartidor de indios) pues ha cinco anos que los tiene sin aber 
hecho residencia, e crea Vuestra Majestad que proveyendo lo 
susodicho los vecinos desta ysla salen de mucha sujecion que 
con el han tenido e tienen. . . ." Town council of Santiago, 
Doc. Ined., 2nd Series, Vol. II., p. 152. 

Gonzalo de Guzman had assumed the office of gov- 
ernor's lieutenant in Cuba on August 1, 1526; his first 
administration terminated on November 6, 1531, with 
the arrival of Lie. Juan Vadillo to take his residencia. 
That investigation being concluded on March 1, 1532, 
Vadillo delivered the governorship again to Manuel 
de Rojas. Guzman once more succeeded Rojas on 
March 28, 1535. On May 20, 1537, he resigned the verge 
to the town council of Santiago. On May 4 following 
Hernando de Soto was made adelantado of Florida and 
governor of Cuba, the first to hold that title and the 
office by royal appointment. These years, even from 
Velazquez's death in 1524, through de Soto's admin- 
istration (1538-43) are the second era of Cuba's history, 
a time of stagnation ebullient with bitter personal 
quarrels. It corresponds to that period in Spain's 
history when the peninsula, fused into nationality by 

115 



116 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

the statesmanship of "the Catholic kings" having 
exhausted in civil war its resentment of Charles V.'s 
foreign nationality, next, so exhausted, expended itself 
still further in paying his bills for foreign campaigns 
out of which Spain got nothing more tangible than the 
glory of them, and the draining responsibilities they 
involved. 

Now in Cuba "the original Iberian tradition" ran 
amuck and by envy and consequent dissension the 
colony was distracted between two factions: the gov- 
ernor and the bishop were one party to prolonged con- 
flict with another centering in the royal officials who 
constituted a majority of the town council and there- 
fore controlled and used it. Their differences have been 
preserved, in documents, with superabundance of de- 
tails. Meanwhile, between a determination to amel- 
iorate the wretched condition of the natives, a deter- 
mination which the records credit to Charles himself, 
and the equally set determination of the colonists to 
wring the last corpuscle of service out of the Cubefios, 
these, — a simple, humble people, — passed, dancing, 
starving, fighting, out of existence. In this era black 
slavery struck its roots deeper. The importance of the 
procuradores waned and flickered out. Gold mining 
continued and excellent copper deposits were discovered. 
The sugar industry again stirred, but its hour was not 
to come for sixty years. Mexico continued to drain the 
island of men and Peru, pouring the wealth of the Incas 
at the feet of Pizarro, drew from the country even old 
settlers who had resisted every other lure. Discovery 
of the Bahama channel routed navigation (and so 
business between the continents and Spain) along the 
north coast of Cuba, establishing Havana's importance 



DE GUZMAN AND DE VADILLO (1526-1532) 117 

and attracting population from the south coast ports, 
especially of Trinidad. Florida now showed for the 
first time above Cuba's horizon and when the brilliant 
pageant of de Soto's expedition for its conquest had 
passed, the tragedy of that disaster seemed to mark the 
close of an era in this island's history. When, however, 
the new era which followed (after descent into the 
slough of despond) is analyzed true potent causes of 
change are found to be, first, definite establishment of 
trade routes and, second, the influence of French 
aggressive policies. 

The curious personal character of the documents of 
this period makes the actors in its tragedies and com- 
edies seem very real to one who has had to read them 
in their wearying prolixity. Bernaidino Velazquez, 
factor, was dead. Andres Duero filled the position 
until the arrival of the crown's appointee, Hernando 
de Castro, who seems to have been engaged in trade 
with the Indies as early as 1520. He came animated by 
an interest in brazil wood, and early reported his con- 
viction that wheat would grow in Cuba (flour was a 
heavy importation); seed wheat for experimentation 
was sent to Cuba apparently in accordance with Cas- 
tro's suggestion, and for his attention to this sort of 
truly important matters the crown thanked him with 
an earnestness indicative of the fact that authorities in 
Spam were weary of the colony's bickerings to which 
nevertheless Castro contributed his share in insisting 
that his predecessor's Cubefios and apparently other 
property as well should be turned over by Duero to him 
as perquisites of his office. Pero Nunez de Guzman, 
treasurer, died in the summer of 1527 and the audiencia 
appointed Duero to be his temporary successor without 



118 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

consulting the royal officials of Santo Domingo. They 
had a certain superiority over Cuba's officials, dating 
back to times when Pasamonte was treasurer general 
for all the Indies, and so in rebuke to Guzman for over- 
looking that detail, the crown ordered Castro instead 
to act pro tern as treasurer too, and presently Duero died 
without achieving what seems to have been his ambi- 
tion, in which his friends did their best to aid him, — to 
be a royal official on royal commission. To succeed 
Pero Nunez came Lope Hurtado. Dour, crabbed as 
his handwriting (which arouses rage in patient paleog- 
raphists!), at odds with all the world in defence of his 
majesty's royal patrimony, Hurtado seems neverthe- 
less to have been that very rare creature which the 
king assuredly needed in his business: an honest man. 
Through years and over many pages of tiresome 
communications to his superiors, Hurtado defended his 
character as such while reiterating without respite his 
accusation that beside him there was none other in all 
the island. In vain the crown sought to stay the treas- 
urer's bitter, impassioned loquacity. Not even accu- 
mulating heavy centuries have muzzled him, for he 
wrote and wrote and still wrote on, and his communica- 
tions have been preserved, so that when finally the great 
silence did fall upon him there was nevertheless left 
in the archives of his country the echo of his querulous 
insistent voice talking determinedly of conspiracies, 
perjured witnesses, false keys and the like paraphernalia 
of dishonesty; so there remains on Cuba's history the 
impress of a character which was valuable, though not 
agreeable, because it was stubborn. 

Pero Nunez had left a considerable estate, — his 
Cubenos encomendados had been seven hundred before 



DE GUZMAN AND DE VADILLO (1526-1532) 119 

five hundred of them died! The governor as repartidor 
"commended" the remnant of them to the widow, 
Dona Catalina de Aguero, and then married the lady, 
by himself so handsomely dowered. His enemies 
(especially Hurtado, the dead man's successor in office, 
who considered that he had been cheated out of these en- 
comendados though Guzman said he had given Hurtado 
one hundred and thirty of them and thirty others, which 
the crown agreed was quite enough) made the most of 
this pleasant arrangement in reporting Guzman's con- 
duct to the crown; Charles, however, had given previ- 
ous consent to the marriage. Pero Nunez's mother, 
Dona Leonor de Quinones at Avila in Spain, pro- 
tested that she and her other children were not duly 
considered in partition of the deceased's property. 
Noisy suits were brought which dragged through court 
after court for . years, the while Guzman and Dona 
Catalina profited by the nine points of law which lie 
in possession! The bishop, — even that cautious citizen 
Manuel de Rojas, — became involved. Pero de Paz 
was concerned, on behalf of Dona Leonor who was 
his mother-in-law. The affair is of historical interest 
only as an illustration to explain the savage ani- 
mosity of Cuba's officials toward each other during 
all this period : they were engaged in a family feud and 
possession of wretched Cubenos was the bone of their 
quarrel. In vain the crown sought to allay their 
enmities: "Your differences," they were to no purpose 
informed, "can redound only in setbacks to the develop- 
ment of that island." They descended to brawls, such, 
for instance, as occurred when Guzman removed from 
the cathedral where he had sought refuge one Esteban 
Basiniano, a Genoese who had broken jail where he 



120 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

was confined for having imported 35 more negro slaves 
into the island than he had the proper licenses to bring. 
Before the culprit was retaken the governor had arrested 
two regidores, broken the verge and torn the shirt of an 
illustrious alcalde, Bernaldino de Quesada, and had 
called the cabildo "a clique, not a council" because he 
found it in what he considered unauthorized session 
outside the legal meeting place. The audiencia was by 
letter asked to send a special judge to investigate their 
charge that Guzman had outraged the dignity of these 
municipal authorities, and the court did so, for which 
the crown reprimanded the audiencia because it acted 
when no person had appeared as complainant. It was 
not shown, the crown maintained, that the governor 
had exceeded his authority. The council was com- 
manded to indulge in no more unjustified complaints, 
nor meet in improper places. Quesada was compen- 
sated, so gossip ran, for his torn shirt and ruffled com- 
posure by a grant of 80 encomendados. The outraged 
church for her part fined the governor for violating the 
sanctuary her altar was to malefactors, and one Sunday 
as penance "the very magnificent senor" Gonzalo de 
Guzman stood through mass bare of his bonnet and 
stripped of all the regalia of his office humbly holding 
a candle in his hand. 

Late in 1528 Maestro Miguel Ramirez (Dominican), 
chosen to be bishop of Cuba and abbot of Jamaica, 
left Spain for Santiago. He had been presented on 
January 1, 1527, to succeed Don Juan de Ubi(c)te who 
resigned the bishopric of Cuba on April 4, 1525. Ram- 
irez was also made protector of Indians, an office which 
was supposed to be a check upon that of repartidor. 

It is possible that Don Juan was not the first bishop 



DE GUZMAN AND DE VADILLO (1526-1532) 121 

of Cuba; his bulls were dated February 10, 1517, and 
a year and a half after that he seems to have despatched 
a representative to take possession. It is possible that 
prior to 1517 he had a predecessor; Gomara, for instance, 
states that Cuba's first bishop was Hernando de Mesa, 
a Dominican friar. I have seen no document referring 
to any bishop prior to Don Juan de Ubite, nor indeed 
have I taken much time to look for any. It is astonish- 
ing, to me, to find so little evidence prior to the days 
of Bishop Juan de Cabezas, of any tangible effect of the 
church in Cuba itself on Cuba's development. 

I have seen no evidence that Bishop Ubite concerned 
himself very much about his bishopric except to collect 
its tithes. He claimed to have trouble in obtaining his 
portion of these. Collection of this revenue seems to 
have begun in 1515 when the crown ordered that one- 
third of what was then thought to be due, be collected 
and expended in church-building, tithes thereafter to be 
regularly collected in kind, not in coin. It was the 
crown's intention in 1515 to farm the tithes, but I do 
not think that this was done, certainly not successfully 
for any long period of time. The collection of tithes is 
first mentioned as a duty of the royal officials represent- 
ing the crown; relationship between crown and papacy 
in this matter in Cuba seems not to have been clearly 
determined this early. Ubite for instance engaged in a 
suit at law with the crown concerning " royal thirds," 
a financial burden the crown had elsewhere successfully 
imposed upon the clergy, and 700 pesos involved were 
long held up pending judgment which seems finally to 
have gone against the bishop for the crown took over 
the 700 pesos at the same time bestowing certain alms 
on the churches of Cuba, evidently to salve the royal 



122 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

conscience. However, the people were expected to pay 
tithes as due to God regardless whether the immediate 
destination of the contribution were priestly purse or 
crown coffer; the governor was ordered to see to it that 
they did so and that no person left the island owing. 
A question arose as to whether the crown estates should 
pay tithes; the royal officials argued that since those of 
comendadores of Santiago did not pay much less should 
the crown's, since the king 'was master of the order, but 
their view did not prevail for the crown ordered that the 
royal estates pay, — as a favor to the bishop not as an 
obligation. 

On October 22, 1523, His Holiness and his Most 
Catholic Majesty agreeing, Bishop Ubite was authorized 
to remove his cathedral from Baracoa (which he claimed 
was unhealthy!) to Santiago, "the principal place in the 
island." A site was assigned it there and later nearby 
lots of land were given for the residence of its clergy, 
doubtless the same they still occupy near the principal 
plaza of the city. The church buildings of Cuba in 1523 
were "of straw," i. e., of board and thatch, and their 
style of architecture improved very slowly though the 
king gave half of his share of the tithes toward com- 
pletion and ornamentation of Santiago's church and 
Bishop Ubite does seem to have interested himself in 
providing for two churches at Trinidad, one at Sancti 
Spiritus, and one at Havana, and his provisor named 
Gomez Arias expended 900 pesos, a considerable sum, in 
repairing that of Santiago after a hurricane had dam- 
aged if not destroyed it. Bishop Ubite himself pros- 
pered, for it is recorded that he came to own 200 head 
of cattle, a few black and Indian slaves, two horses 
and a mare. 



DE GUZMAN AND DE VADILLO (1526-1532J 123 

The crown was willing that the new bishop, Maestro 
Miguel Ramirez, should do as well: the governor and 
officials were ordered to assign him farming land for his 
maintenance and ranges for cattle. In the retinue which 
accompanied him he had licenses to take half a dozen 
black slaves and two white slave women. 

Before Gonzalo de Guzman had occupied the gov- 
ernor's chair two years it had become evident that it 
would be desirable to subject him to a residencia at the 
end of that time, as the law required. The task was 
assigned to the Licenciado Juan Vadillo, who in 1525 
had been commissioned by the crown to collect debts 
due it in La Espafiola, San Juan de Puerto Rico, Cuba 
and Jamaica. He had set out on that mission provided 
with clerks and a sheriff and so thoroughly did he work 
he left a wake wherever he passed of lamenting debtors 
petitioning for time! In October, 1528, being then in 
Santo Domingo he received orders to call upon the 
vireine, Dona Maria de Toledo, widow of Diego Colon 
and guardian of his heir, the Admiral Luis Colon, for a 
thirty-day commission as governor's lieutenant in Cuba 
during which period he was to reside?iciar Guzman 
according to instructions which would be furnished him 
by Secretary Cobos and at the end of that time he was 
to return the verge to Guzman whom the crown held, 
he was informed, in high esteem. Vadillo was actually 
provided with a cedula recommitting the government 
to Guzman after thirty days; the existence of this 
cedula was supposed to be a secret, but it did not remain 
so. Such a mission was not to Vadillo's liking. He 
replied with towering pride that in this matter he 
obeyed because his monarch commanded; otherwise 
an admiral's appointment was not acceptable to him 



124 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

who like his father and his grandfather before him had 
served kings of Castile and Aragon and not mere 
admirals of Indies! "Stolz UeV ich meinen Spanier!" 
He remarked that it was not specified what salary he 
was to receive and that Cobos' instructions had not 
been sent, and he made these omissions his excuse to 
delay departing for Cuba. He called attention to the 
fact that nothing was said as to whether he was also to 
act as repartidor of Cuberlos during the residencia, by 
stating flatly that the manner in which the natives of 
the island were distributed, townsful to some men and 
none at all to others, was depopulating the country: 
the natives died and the Spaniards left. This hint 
which was doubtless followed up by " wire-pulling " of 
which I have seen no record had its effect in that the re- 
partimiento of natives was eventually placed with 
Vadillo, jointly with the bishop, during the term of his 
activities in Cuba. In July of 1529 Vadillo was still 
protesting against the job which had befallen him: the 
time allowed was too short and the conditions under 
which he was to proceed made the residencia a, farce. 
Finally, however, compelled by a commission dated 
February 27th, 1531, which he received before July 
following, Vadillo prepared to go, the while reiterating 
his demand that a longer period be allowed him: forty 
days were not enough for the journey and sixty for the 
investigation, auditing of accounts, etc., etc. His time 
was accordingly extended. A salary of 600 maravedises 
per diem payable from Cuba's three-keyed chest had 
been assigned him, control of the repartimiento had 
been included in his powers, and at the end of his 
investigation of Guzman Vadillo was authorized to seat 
as governor's lieutenant in Cuba the man he thought 



DE GUZMAN AND DE VADILLO (1526-1532) 125 

fit, providing Dona Maria de Toledo had not mean- 
while made the appointment, his incumbent to hold 
office until she did so. Evidently since 1528 the crown's 
confidence in Guzman had abated. 

There was sufficient reason that it should do so. 
There is no space here to chronicle in the detail in which 
the records at Seville have preserved them the charges 
and counter-charges in which governor, bishop, officials, 
council and individuals indulged through these five 
years, when every man used the best weapons he could 
lay hand to, — bribery, defamation, arrest, confiscation, 
excommunication and assassination. The situation 
became intolerable. "The original Iberian tradition" 
had resolved ' ' local patriotism ' ' into anarchy. Jealousy 
and the hatred it breeds in small communities had 
brought about chaos out of which it was Vadillo's task 
to establish order in matters of finance and justice. 
He was equal to that task; he had ability and it was 
augmented by the temper in which he came. 

He arrived in Santiago on November 6, 1531. The 
city council petitioned that the sixty days in which he 
was to take Guzman's residencia be reckoned from the 
date on which all the settlements in the island should be 
officially informed of his arrival and purpose, and on 
December 13th he (having meanwhile taken a first 
glance at the accounts he was to audit) announced that 
for sixty days after New Year's then approaching, he 
would hear charges against Guzman which he seemed 
to imply would largely concern unwise " commenda- 
tions" of natives, various incidents involving the 
fiscal interests of the crown, and sins of loose living 
among the colonists. Presumably by that date all con- 
cerned would be thoroughly advised of the residencia. 



126 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Commencing then on January 1, 1532, old grievances 
were refurbished for Vadillo's inspection. On strength 
of the evidence laid before him Vadillo accused the 
governor of interfering with free expression of the 
popular will in matters of election of alcaldes and pro- 
curadores; of naming capitanes to represent him in 
settlements where he might not have lieutenants; of 
levying unauthorized taxes for campaigns against the 
natives (and also of not extending sufficient protection 
against the chief rebel among them when asked to do 
so!) ; of buying against the city council's wishes a certain 
house for fifty pesos to serve as a jail; of compelling the 
people of Santiago to contribute the labor of slaves and 
encomendados to the clearing of a road from the town to 
the harbor mouth, to open which some thought danger- 
ous; of collecting from residents along a certain street 
from the plaza to the waterfront, on which houses of his 
faced, a sum of money to pave it which money was never 
so expended; of commissioning notaries, to do which 
neither he nor the council of Santiago had any author- 
ity; of exercising his office of inspector in the fundicion 
through a substitute which assuredly was not permis- 
sible; of carelessness with respect to his duties there; 
of not compelling married men to go home to their 
wives in Spain or else send for them; of condoning the 
importation of negroes not accompanied by proper 
licenses; of accepting gifts, of overlooking concubinage 
and gambling, etc., etc.; of tempering justice to his 
friends while inflicting it sometimes without regard to 
details of lawful jurisdiction but with speed and rigor 
upon persons not in enjoyment of his favor. In the 
matter of repartimiento Vadillo accused Guzman of 
keeping secret a royal provision which insisted that the 



DE GUZMAN AND DE VADILLO (1526-1532) 127 

maximum encomienda be 100 as determined in 1522, 
and he also accused the governor of having misled the 
crown in obtaining confirmation of a clause in preceding 
ordinances which made the maximum 300; he accused 
him of assigning Cubenos to his relatives and friends 
in utter contempt of royal cedulas forbidding such par- 
tiality, adding " offence to offence" in this particular; 
of " commending" natives to persons not eligible to be 
encomenderos, of being a party to what were in effect 
sales of encomiendas made by certain persons he was 
pleased to permit to leave the country. The governor 
defended himself valiantly and when Vadillo "finding 
him guilty on most counts," stripped him of his offices 
of fundicion inspector (which Castro served until Guz- 
man's reinstatement) and of regidor, and imposed fines, 
Guzman appealed, very much preferring the council for 
the Indies in Spain to the audiencia in Santo Domingo 
(of which Vadillo was a judge) to which court those 
cases involving minor amounts were in regular routine 
referred. When the licenciado ordered him to present 
himself before the crown with the records of his res- 
idencia Guzman prepared to go well armed not only 
for defence but for offence against all his enemies. 

On March 1st, 1532, Vadillo having closed Guzman's 
residencia (leaving much unfinished, — many cases were 
handed over to an alcalde), Manuel de Rojas to whom 
the vireine's appointment to the governorship had been 
made out, was with some difficulty persuaded to accept 
the office. He was duly received by the hesitating city 
council which had petitioned Vadillo vainly to retain 
the verge, despite the fact that he had not pronounced 
sentences against Guzman quite fast enough to satisfy 
that body. The council was reassured that it was proper 



128 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

to receive Rojas without other command from the 
crown than that embodied in the royal cedula to Vadillo 
covering this point, and the crown itself presently ad- 
vised the council that it had done right in so receiving 
him. 

Vadillo then turned his whole attention to finishing 
the auditing of accounts which he had begun on arrival. 
He looked over the records of treasurers from Cuellar 
through Pero Nunez's incumbency. He ordered col- 
lected from Guzman as heir to Velazquez who was heir 
to Cuellar, 3000 pesos as the amount of certain debts 
to the crown left unpaid because, Vadillo considered, 
of Cuellar's negligence. Guzman was accused of inten- 
tionally failing to see to it that Pero Nunez's accounts 
were promptly audited. Vadillo found the former 
treasurer to owe the crown 3430 pesos and seems to 
have collected 2010 from his estate in Guzman's posses- 
sion and to have sought the balance from those persons 
who went his bond. Vadillo held Pero Nunez respon- 
sible for heavy losses to the crown in the bankruptcy of 
Pedro de Xeres, renter of the customs collections, 
and compelled Francisco de Aguero, bondsman, to 
defend himself against demands that he make good 
9559 pesos on this score. Vadillo audited the accounts 
of other royal officials and generally cleaned up matters 
financial down to June 1, 1532. Instructions were left 
with the royal officials to guide them thereafter in their 
administration of crown affairs, and they were to render 
a half-yearly instead of a yearly statement of those 
affairs. Vadillo endeavored to straighten out Hurtado's 
and Castro's claims to the Cubefios of their predecessors, 
apparently finding their contentions correct. The 
bishop and Guzman, however, so strenuously resisted 



DE GUZMAN AND DE VADILLO (1526-1532) 129 

his decision in this matter that Rojas took the en- 
comendados concerned into his own possession, — 
" shrunk to a third what they were," — and referred the 
quarrel to the crown. In many instances final revisions 
confirming or reversing Vadillo's decisions were not 
obtained until years after, in the court of final jurisdic- 
tion in Spain. 

Now, in the spring of 1532 the settlements had, as in 
former years, sent their procuradores to Santiago. 
Vadillo, to whom they came accredited, was not pre- 
possessed in their favor. In 1529 and 1530 elections of 
alcaldes and procuradores had given rise to scandalous 
scenes. Guzman objected to the election of Gonzalo de 
Escobar in 1530 and mauled him during a council 
session; he sought to alter the accepted manner of 
choosing the alcaldes, and regidores who appealed from 
his decision in this regard were jailed until such time as 
they changed their point of view. Guzman complained 
that popular elections excited the people. In July, 1529, 
nevertheless, Juan Barba was elected procurador by 
ballots cast in the church of Santiago before an alcalde 
in such manner that the governor in whose house they 
were counted could not tell how each citizen had voted. 
Although Guzman received Barba's oath of office he 
seems to have declined to issue him "due powers," i. e., 
papers accrediting him as procurador. The regidores 
inclined so to equip him. Quarrels ensued. The gov- 
ernor eventually compassed the election of his brother- 
in-law Francisco de Aguero. Next year (March, 1530) 
the governor and alcaldes in the same sacred edifice 
held a viva voce election, each voter being sworn before 
he expressed to them his preference. Each was asked 
also if he had been approached by any persons seeking 



130 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

to influence his opinion: it was evidently the intention 
to prove that popular elections led to disturbance, 
bribery and perjury. Francisco Osorio was declared 
elected procurador by this method and his " power" (of 
attorney for the community) was forthwith signed by 
alcaldes and citizens or marked by those among them 
who could not write. To obviate disputes and dis- 
turbances, appeal was made to the audiencia to pre- 
scribe the manner in which elections should be held 
and that court of which Vadillo was a part expressed 
vigorous disapproval of procuradores popularly chosen 
and grave doubt if they made for good government. 
There were no such procuradores in La Espanola nor 
ever would be if the audiencia' s views prevailed. The 
audiencia declared they contributed little to the general 
welfare, and, on the contrary, caused "restlessness and 
scandal." Vadillo believed the councils should elect 
both alcaldes and procuradores. These being his views, 
it is obvious why he was not prepossessed in favor of 
the procuradores who presented themselves to him in 
1532 especially since the persons chosen and the manner 
of their choosing confirmed suspicion that Guzman's 
influence throughout the island had selected them 
among his own kinsmen and followers, — that they 
were, in fine, part of "the machine." Vadillo summed 
them up as detrimental to the interests of the crown 
and of the people and some of them he flatly declined to 
recognize at all, discovering flaws in their credentials. 

Among those entirely thrown out of court was Juan 
Bono de Quexo of Havana and in this action it would 
appear that Vadillo was justified, for the existing doc- 
uments seem to show that Bono de Quexo was not 
properly elected by the people of Havana on New Year's 



DE GUZMAN AND DE VADILLO (1526-1532) 131 

day (as procuradores should be and others were) but 
instead was chosen by alcaldes and regidores. Alonso 
Sanchez del Corral, Guzman's uncle, appeared in 
representation of Sancti Spiritus and apparently was 
not recognized. Baracoa sent up Pedro Martin who 
seems to have returned home very shortly convinced 
that Vadillo was "more of a tyrant than a judge," for 
in April the justicia and regidores of Asuncion in very 
great bitterness laid their situation before the crown, 
and expressed the hope that the next judge who came 
to the island might be "a humane person, competent to 
appreciate qualities, and one who knows what Indies 
are and that Spanish colonials are not Indians." Alonso 
de Aguilar had come up to represent Puerto Principe 
and Francisco Rabanal, Bayamo. There exists a letter 
(dated August 8, 1532) written by Vasco Porcallo de 
Figueroa, arriving at that unusual season as procurador 
for Sancti Spiritus, in which he states that when he 
reached Santiago he found none of the other represent- 
atives there because Vadillo had refused to recognize 
most of them, this to the grievous detriment of the 
towns' privileges. I have seen no evidence that after 
this date the procuradores ever again assembled at the 
spring fundicion to consult together and jointly make 
their petitions and their protests on behalf of the island 
to the crown. Vadillo was their Villalar! This was the 
end, I should say, of the sporadic inclination previously 
mentioned toward representative government, at this 
very early date, in Cuba. Vadillo's treatment of their 
procuradores fertilized the municipalities to seeds of 
animosity against him which Guzman was busily sowing 
all this while, with every anticipation of reaping there- 
from a quick harvest. 



132 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Vadillo sailed for Santo Domingo on July 9, 1532. 
He seems to have been indeed "a righteous judge/' 
zealous, as Pedro de Paz said, in making collection of 
moneys due the crown and in distributing justice, — in 
fulfilling, that is, his dual mission to Cuba. The council 
was doubtless representative of the community in peti- 
tioning him to retain the verge, nor was the account- 
ant, probably, alone in lamenting that he left the island 
too soon (with the expiration of his commission) since, 
as said, many suits remained unsettled, the auditing of 
accounts was not completed, some minor accounts were 
entirely untouched, and much money was still due to 
be paid. In collecting it, however, he seems to have 
inspired local officials with something of his own spirit 
for they gathered it in and forwarded it properly. 
Nevertheless Vadillo did not retire from Cuba amid 
blessings from all the people. 

He did not, for instance, escape without encounters 
with Bishop Ramirez, "a great disturber and scandal- 
maker," as Hurtado described him. These difficulties 
began the moment the bishop, interrupting a visit 
to Jamaica (said to have been detrimental to the wel- 
fare and quietude of that dependency of his diocese), 
returned to Santiago shortly after Vadillo 's arrival 
there. The bishop was Guzman's violent partisan 
during the residencia, seeking to prevent witnesses 
from testifying against him by threats that he would 
excommunicate those who did so. Vadillo confiscated 
gold mined by the encomendados held by the bishop's 
niece's husband, on the ground that he was but a 
dummy, the real encomendero being the bishop himself 
who was ineligible to have them, — moreover the special 
lot concerned belonged, Vadillo decided, to Hurtado as 



DE GUZMAN AND DE VADILLO (1526-1532) 133 

perquisite of his office of treasurer. Vadillo ordered 
that charges collected for burial services should not be 
in excess of those usual in Santo Domingo (he was later 
upheld by royal cedula) . The bishop, being so irritated, 
attempted to reprimand Vadillo publicly in the church, 
but the licenciado turned on his heel and left the place. 
No sooner had Vadillo cleared from Santiago, however, 
than the bishop excommunicated him and swore, so 
Vadillo was told, to "ruin him by way of the inquisi- 
tion." The licenciado was incensed. In laying the 
matter before the crown and so appealing to Charles 
for protection, Vadillo said that his chief offence was 
that he had interfered with the bishop's pro visor when 
he and a Dominican arrested "for the inquisition" one 
Juan Millan, a good citizen and a conquistador who 
was about to embark for Spain where, presumably, he 
would too accurately inform the crown and council for 
the Indies of the bishop's and of Guzman's conduct of 
affairs in Cuba. He had been a witness against Guz- 
man. Vadillo explained that when he saw Millan taken 
into custody for the inquisition he thought the thing 
a joke. It was news to Vadillo and to all Santiago 
that Ponce de Asis, provisor, who made the arrest, or 
the bishop who on arriving sanctioned it, had any 
authoritjr whatsoever from the holy office. Later 
evidently discovering that they were within their 
right, — that Millan's detention was legal, — Vadillo 
being a good lawyer acquiesced in it, regretfully how- 
ever since he had and expressed a good opinion of 
Millan. The audiencia protested against the bishop's 
"rough presumption" in excommunicating a judge 
whose offence was that he "defended royal justice," 
and promptly the crown itself reprimanded the bishop 



134 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

for excommunicating Vadillo and peremptorily ordered 
him to remove the ban. The inquisitor general of Indies 
acted quickly in the same sense. The bishop was dis- 
comfited and Vadillo exonerated. Excommunications 
of leading citizens who with Vadillo had rushed to 
Millan's release seem presently to have taken the 
profitable shape of fines collected by the bishop. 
Millan must have gotten off as light for he reappears in 
the records. 

On August 16, 1532, Guzman, freighted down with 
eulogies, memorials and accusations, and accompanied 
by the bishop going to be consecrated, left for Spain in 
Hurtado's wake in a stout ship owned by Francisco 
Gomez, resident of the villa de Moquer, who had come 
around from Santo Domingo laden with sugar and 
cassia fistularis and hides. Aboard it too went 1450 
pesos for the crown, being the king's percentage of gold 
from the fundicion then in progress, and customs duties 
collected. 

Doubtless Manuel de Rojas, left as governor's 
lieutenant in Cuba, saw Guzman and Bishop Ramirez 
drop over the horizon with every feeling of relief : it was 
as though gracious Providence was affording him in 
their absence an opportunity to maintain and augment 
good order in the colony which Vadillo had in some sort 
restored. Unfortunately, however, Cuba had not yet 
reached low water in her decline. 



CHAPTER IX 

" DIFFERENT LIBERTY" (TO 1535) 

"Indios no son capaces ni tienen pensamiento sino en comer 
y holgar y ofender a Nuestro Senor." — Lope Hurtado, A. de I., 
54-1-34. 

Manuel de Rojas' principal concern was the natives 
of the island. Vadillo estimated the Indian population, 
aboriginal and imported, to be between 4500 and 5000 
at this period. The issue the Cubenos constituted had 
come to a head. 

Even before Velazquez's death, many rose in arms 
against the whites, at the time when in his interest in 
Mexico the adelantado lightened his hand on Cuba. 
From their refuges on islets along the coast they raided 
the Spaniards' estates, burning and killing. In 1523 
Velazquez made Rodrigo de Tamayo captain to pro- 
ceed (not for the first time) against such "key Indians 
(indios cayos) and against the others with them or in 
any manner up in arms and rebellion," to kill and cap- 
ture as he could and to maim or brand and sell what 
captives he took, according to their degree of culpabil- 
ity. These latter powers Altamirano reconferred on 
Tamayo under separate title of justicia with exclusive 
jurisdiction over such cases. The crown approved this 
procedure against the natives and by royal cedula 
Guzman was authorized to offer first peace, and if it 
were not accepted on the Christians' own terms (that 

135 



136 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

the Cubenos return to "the fidelity, service and obe- 
dience" expressed in the repartimiento system), then 
war, all prisoners taken to be slaves of their captors. 

Though the governor reported the island tranquil in 
the first months of 1527, early in 1528 there appeared 
at Bayamo and Puerto Principe a band of thirty or 
forty cimarrones (natives run "wild" as compared with 
mansos, i. e., "tame," indios de paz, of peace). Guzman 
said that the leaders in this movement were north shore 
"key Indians" reinforced by natives from two villages 
near Sancti Spiritus. Spaniards from there sent to 
Santiago for help but meanwhile dispersed the maraud- 
ing bands, killing two chiefs who claimed through 
supernatural powers to be immune to Spanish weapons 
and to know all that transpired through the whole 
island. This is the first mention I have seen in Cuban 
documents of "witch-craft." Guzman declared that it 
was "not convenient that squads of armed men ever 
be lacking to serve against Indians in arms; they are 
needed to keep down even the tame Indians who accept 
intercourse with Spaniards as cheerfully as they would 
dig out their own eyes." Funds were raised by some 
sort of a levy and the governor, conducting the cam- 
paign in person, later failed, or so Hurtado and the 
town council declared, to render account of the money. 
Neither was the revolt successfully ended; travel 
remained distinctly unsafe except for guarded par- 
ties. 

In 1528 a second pestilence (small-pox) began to rage 
through Cuba nor did it cease soon. It seemed almost 
as though the Almighty proposed to end the Cubenos' 
martyrdom in the one certain manner since his Most 
Catholic Majesty of Spain failed to mitigate it. "I 



"DIFFERENT LIBERTY" (TO 1535) 137 

am displeased," the crown wrote of the deaths of 
Cubenos, "on their account and because of the effect 
on that island's population and on the settlers, but 
concerning the acts of God there is naught to be said 
save to give thanks, and to urge you, the governor, 
continually to see to it that those left are well treated 
that they may be preserved, and instructed in the 
things of our Holy Catholic Faith in order that they 
may be saved." 

Still there was spirit enough among the survivors 
to reanimate revolt in October, 1529, when cimarrones 
killed nine or ten " honorable conquistador 'es," many 
peaceable natives and blacks who served them, de- 
stroyed plantings, burned houses, slaughtered stock 
and indulged in cruelties. Authorized to wage war, the 
Spaniards levied on themselves a six months' tax and 
so raised 304 pesos for another war against the outlaws. 
They went out against the natives in parties from 
Bayamo and elsewhere; Manuel de Rojas maintained 
three such parties of Spaniards, negroes and Indians 
in the field for three months. "Justice was done," 
and though "some escaped and disappeared" presently 
the crown was advised that order had been restored and 
the highways made safe again. The tranquility was, 
however, only comparative. To make it absolute 
Rojas seems to have entertained plans for an extensive 
war: he desired to coast the island in canoes, cleaning 
the rebels out from their resorts in the keys as he went, 
and he even laid in supplies for this purpose, but it 
seems that Governor Guzman denied him authority 
to act, lest, gossips said, he might distinguish himself 
unduly. Nevertheless Guzman seems to have con- 
sented eventually that something should be done, but 



138 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

I take it that plans were suspended by Vadillo's arrival 
a little later. 

Vadillo seems to have tried by pacific solicitation to 
bring the most notorious of the native outlaws, a chief 
named Guama, into obedience. Guzman, Rojas de- 
clared, had avoided molesting this rebel and for years 
he had therefore maintained himself with a harem in 
almost undisturbed liberty in the mountains, where on 
hidden ranchos with perhaps sixty followers he indus- 
triously cultivated crops for support, not seeking, it 
would seem, to live by depredations. Now, however, 
Rojas determined to extirpate the menace, alarmed 
perhaps by a rumor that the rebel chieftain Enriquillo 
who had wrought havoc in La Espanola, was planning 
to cross to Cuba to join forces with Guama. The cam- 
paign seems to have opened with an expedition under 
one Antonio Lopez against natives doing damage 
around Santiago; they had kidnapped two women. 
Then against Guama himself in December, 1532, Rojas 
despatched a fighting force under Diego Barba who 
drove the chief from his principal camp killing some of 
his followers and capturing others of them, two of whom 
Rojas hung as ringleaders. Others he punished and 
returned to their encomenderos and some seventeen 
women and small children he gave as lifehold naborias 
to Barba and his men. Of all this the crown approved 
when informed. Rojas himself went up to Baracoa 
where the situation seemed still serious as it also be- 
came around Bayamo where the rebels looted the cross- 
roads stores of Venta de Cauto, a by no means unim- 
portant trade center. Under Gonzalo de Obregon the 
Spaniards camped on Guama's trail; sorely harried, his 
band came back to its old stamping ground for food, 



"DIFFERENT LIBERTY" (TO 1535) 139 

having no other supply. Before the end of March 
Obregon and the Spaniards who had served under 
him were in Santiago with seven more captives, one of 
whom, a Jamaican, had been "wild" for nine years. 
Guama himself, these said, was dead, treacherously 
killed by his own brother who used a hatchet as he lay 
asleep. This brother then assumed leadership of the 
few men, perhaps ten, with half as many women, who 
were all that was left of Guama' s band. These prisoners 
denied that they had killed Spaniards, or negroes or 
peaceful natives, or that Guama had done worse than 
make away with the men of his own following, possibly 
whenever their number seemed likely to grow beyond 
his power to control, augmented as his band was 
especially from the nearby Baracoa mines whose en- 
comendados fled to him in ones and twos "and even in 
sevens." Hernando de Castro recognized naborias of 
his among these captives and in endeavoring to obtain 
possession of them cited the royal cedula of January 25, 
1531, forbidding that Indians taken in war be made 
slaves, and further cedulas declaring Cubefios to be free 
vassals of the crown. Nevertheless (relying it would 
seem on authority from Santo Domingo) Rojas con- 
demned the seven, as those taken captive earlier had 
been condemned, to be not slaves, he was careful to 
specify though he said they deserved slavery, but 
naborias perpetuas (lifehold servants) "during the king's 
pleasure" of their captors who, according to the regular 
formula, were bidden to instruct them in the faith, 
clothe and feed them. Thus were Obregon and the 
Spaniards who served under him recompensed over 
and above the three and a half pesos monthly of their 
pay. The Indians and negroes who campaigned with 



140 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

them were rewarded with cacona, i. e., gifts of clothing, 
etc. So all were kept in good humor to ranchear (as 
this particular form of hunting was then called). At 
the same time Rojas sent a messenger to the remnants 
of Guama's band, urging them to come in. Although 
the crown praised Castro as "a good servant," and 
bade him forward the documents of his action in protest 
against Rojas' distribution of the captives taken, the 
governor's vigorous policy in the matter was upheld 
even over the fiscal's protests. I have not found any 
further mention of organized resistance of the natives 
against the Spaniards. In secret stockaded camps 
(palenques) in the fastnesses of the mountains, however, 
some still maintained their freedom. 

Conflict remained unreconciled between the theory, 
officially so frequently expressed, that the Cubenos 
were the free, loyal vassals of the crown, and the un- 
lovely facts of the repartimiento system of their bond- 
age. In notable contrast with his generosity to Cuba 
in matters of political administration after Velazquez' 
death, Charles at that very period showed him- 
self jealous, for his conscience' sake, of his divine 
right to dispose of the liberty and so of the life of the 
Cubenos. 

The Jeronimite monks, religious persons that they 
were, succumbed to the influence of that "uncontrolled 
greed" they were sent to check; their tribunal was 
abolished and on August 4, 1526, the crown made 
Gonzalo de Guzman who was already juez de residencia 
and governor, also repartidor of the natives of Cuba de- 
fining his authority to be precisely what Velazquez's 
had been. What Cubenos hard labor, disease and war 
had left alive were helpless in his hands, for the au- 



"DIFFERENT LIBERTY" (TO 1535) 141 

diencia of Santo Domingo was instructed not to inter- 
fere with his exercise of this office as it and other 
persons had without authority tried to interfere with his 
predecessors'. The alcaldes of the island were slightly- 
more successful in retaining what jurisdiction in this 
matter they had usurped from Velazquez, for when 
Guzman appointed alcaldes visitadores to visit the 
mines where natives were at work (Colon during his 
visit in 1522 had sent out similar officials) the alcaldes 
ordinarios of the municipalities resented it and late in 
1528 the crown abolished the alcaldes visitadores 
(inspector-judges). Guzman and Ramirez, who found 
their prerogatives as repartidor and protector somewhat 
clipped by this order, forthwith appointed two general 
inspectors, Juan de Baroja and Pero Alvarez. The city 
of Santiago protested, calling especial attention to the 
fact that these general inspectors were paid rather well 
for doing work the alcaldes ordinarios formerly did for 
nothing extra, as far at least as was observable in the 
king's counting house. The crown accordingly abol- 
ished the general inspectors, and restored their duties 
to the municipal alcaldes. The governor and bishop 
were forbidden to name inspectors except those nec- 
essary to report on encomiendas held by the alcaldes 
themselves. This decision was, apparently, hastened 
by the character of the general inspectors they had 
chosen: an ugly scandal beset one at Baracoa, and at 
Puerto Principe' the other began to exercise his func- 
tions without presenting himself before the town coun- 
cil there. Guzman sent Juan de la Torre as a special 
judge along with other officials on salaries to investigate 
the disturbance which ensued at Puerto Principe in 
course of which an alcalde and two regidores were 



142 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

arrested and deprived temporarily at least of their 
encomiendas. 

Even earlier than this the crown had evidently come 
to consider the unhampered control of the Cubenos by 
one man an unsatisfactory arrangement. Fray Pedro 
Mexia de Trillo of La Espafiola, provincial of the 
Franciscan order, had been instructed to go to Cuba to 
investigate, and punish, charges of bodily mistreatment 
of encomendados which had led the crown to believe the 
Cubenos to be the saddest among his subjects despite 
the colonists' stout assertions that the contrary was the 
case; and he was to carry out the emperor's determina- 
tion to liberate the natives " within the limits of right 
living and religion, that they might increase, not de- 
crease." Only a great divergence of views among 
"theologians and learned conscientious persons" whom 
he had consulted at great length in the matter had 
prevented Charles from doing this before; now he was 
determined to act on behalf of the Cubenos, pending 
final decision of his eminent counsellors, because he 
understood that the Cubenos were most in need of relief 
among all his American vassals. It was ordered that 
laws forbidding Spaniards ■ to take Cubenos to Spain 
as slaves be vigorously enforced, and it is interesting 
to note that some who were so conveyed to Spain were 
freed by courts of law there before which they succeeded 
in getting a hearing. 

Fray Pedro was, so he claimed, preparing to leave 
La Espafiola for Cuba on this mission when he heard of 
Guzman's appointment as repartidor. He foresaw a 
conflict between their jurisdictions; on May 10, 1527, 
he secured from the audiencia of Santo Domingo a 
definition of his authority, the court expressing the 



"DIFFERENT LIBERTY" (TO 1535) 143 

opinion that it remained to the governor to assign real 
property among the settlers whereas it was Fray Pedro's 
business to " commend" Cubefios. Before the end of 
May Governor Guzman appealed from this inter- 
pretation, protesting that the audiencia had no author- 
ity to make it. As evidence that it was his prerogative 
to allot the natives to service he cited the very clear 
wording of his appointment as repartidor; and he also 
pointed out the fact that to grant lands had, on the 
other hand, been a function of the town councils ever 
since their establishment. 

The settlers of Cuba were aware of the crown's inten- 
tions, as expressed in correspondence with Fray Pedro, 
and the prior of the Dominican monastery of La 
Espafiola had forwarded certain instructions, approved 
by the audiencia, ordering a test made of the Cubefios' 
capacity for liberty. It appears to have been made in 
one short month and (in so brief a period!) Guzman 
claimed to have accumulated evidence to prove the 
aboriginal people unfit for responsibility. In the same 
communication he informed the crown that the natives 
were up in arms against the Spaniards. 

The procuradores speaking for the colony assured 
Charles that if his proposed policy of freeing the natives 
were adopted, what Cubefios had not rebelled would 
assuredly rise, kill off all the Christians, and return to 
their vices and idolatry as, his Catholic majesty was 
assured, they invariably did the moment vigilance was 
relaxed. Moreover, the Spaniards " since they have no 
other means of support save the aforesaid Indians" 
would abandon the island to the devil who had possessed 
it previously. A second conquest would become nec- 
essary. The procuradores therefore petitioned that 



144 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

existing encomiendas be maintained ''because God 
would be served thereby and our (royal) revenues in- 
creased and the said Spaniards benefited and the island 
conserved as to population and the said Indians would 
come the sooner into true knowledge of our holy 
Catholic faith, being in communication with the said 
Christians." The crown in not altogether satisfactory 
response to this, reissued orders to Fray Pedro: to 
assemble into towns such as the Spaniards had, those 
Cubefios he judged capable of living to themselves 
where religion and crafts were to be taught them, in 
such manner that the Cubefios might increase and 
multiply. The governor was to cooperate in details 
of the execution of this command: honest clergy were 
to be appointed over the Cubefios so assembled, to give 
them to understand that it was the king's goodwill 
that they should live "like reasonable people" and 
favored vassals. Revolt or other disobedience was to 
forfeit their liberty and his countenance, for if it were 
found that they were indeed unfit to maintain them- 
selves then to save their souls they were to be "com- 
mended" as before. On the conscience of Fray Pedro 
and Governor Gonzalo de Guzman the crown laid 
responsibility in this matter, bidding them bear always 
in mind that he considered the Cubefios freemen and 
desired them to be treated as such, not as slaves. If, 
finally, it were necessary to " commend" them, it should 
be done in all kindness, due provision being made for 
their food, clothing and protection from overwork. 

Cuba's attention was called to a series of new or- 
dinances concerning Indians. Preamble to these is a 
scathing recital of Spanish cruelties and the devastating 
effect of them. Fray Bartolome de las Casas in his 



"DIFFERENT LIBERTY" (TO 1535) 145 

History of the Indies makes no worse charges than does 
Charles V. himself in this document (dated Novem- 
ber 17, 1526) against Spaniards as responsible for the 
depopulation of the New World. Those portions of the 
cedula which most concerned Cuba were the paragraphs 
ordering that Indian slaves who had been imported into 
Cuba be returned to their native regions or if this were 
not possible, that they be considered no longer slaves 
but encomendados where they were, and especially the 
provisions that the aborigines should no longer be 
forced to work at mining. If they mined it must be of 
their own free will and on pay. 

A month later this restriction was modified to permit 
the Cubeiios to be used in washing gold though not in 
the heavier operations of excavating. Even so, vigorous 
complaint followed. Rodrigo Duran as Cuba's general 
procurador at court assured the crown that if even the 
modified order were enforced the Spaniards would leave 
the island; and that too just when new rich mines 
had been found. Guzman and Fray Pedro were re- 
quested to report on the point but meanwhile the order 
relieving the Cubenos was sustained. The municipal 
procuradores at their meeting in Santiago in 1528 re- 
peated the colony's objections: they described mining 
as easy work, preferred by the Cubenos to that of 
clearing, burning and cultivating land, told how well 
fed the natives were at the mines on cazabe bread and 
meat every day (droves of hogs accompanied them to 
the hills) whereas other encomendados otherwise em- 
ployed got meat or fish but twice a week; they de- 
scribed how improved the natives were by close asso- 
ciation with the Christians in charge over them at the 
mines where close supervision gave them no opportu- 



146 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

nity to revert to vices or idolatrous ceremonies, and 
they recounted the pastimes allowed them of dancing, 
ball games and hunting and fishing. Mining, they 
said, had killed no Cubeno nor caused any to rise in 
rebellion; moreover, it was the principal source of the 
Spaniards' profits in Cuba and ruin must follow pro- 
hibition of the use of Cubenos to get gold for if released 
from work "tame Indians" would join those others 
already in revolt and Spanish settlers must depart 
from Cuba, an island of material and strategical im- 
portance to the crown and to the crown's Indies. Mean- 
while, until the monarch could be heard from once more 
in this matter, the procuradores insisted that Governor 
Guzman do nothing toward altering the condition of 
the natives. 

At this juncture the crown referred the whole grave 
problem of the repartimiento system to Bishop Sebas- 
tian Ramirez of La Espafiola who was also president 
of the audiencia there, to determine whether or not it 
should be continued. The bishop did not decide to 
abolish it in Cuba. Fray Pedro never went to Cuba. 
His mission devolved upon Bishop Ramirez. 

Because the crown was still determined that the 
Cubenos should be "liberated and administered as free 
vassals and so come into knowledge of the Holy Faith," 
the Maestro Fray Miguel Ramirez had been named 
protector of the Indians in addition to being bishop of 
Cuba. His appointment as such empowered him to 
investigate charges of mistreatment of natives and to 
punish guilty encomenderos, by corporal chastisement, 
imprisonment, loss of encomendados, or fines. Appeal 
was to the governor except when the fine was less than 
fifty pesos or the jail term less than ten days. He had 



"DIFFERENT LIBERTY" (TO 1535) 147 

this jurisdiction even over local civil officials. Ramirez 
was expected to issue ordinances to regulate employ- 
ment of natives in mining and he had instructions to 
enforce previous cedulas, especially those issued to 
Fray Pedro Mexia concerning the " experiment" to be 
made as to the Cubenos' capacity. 

Never was protector of Indians more easily managed 
than Bishop Ramirez. The governor " insisted" that 
he accept encomiendas for his own service, and so he did 
despite a previous ruling that prelates and protectors 
were not to hold encomendados in service. A cedula was 
issued declaring both governor and bishop ineligible to 
be encomenderos. The crown expressed amazement that 
Fray Miguel should have accepted any assignment of 
natives since to hold them rendered him a poor judge 
of the welfare of Cubenos whom it was his particular 
mission to protect. When this order arrived, half a 
year after its date, evasion was easy : the bishop had his 
encomiendas transferred to Garcia Lopez, husband of 
a niece with whom Providence had opportunely pro- 
vided him. 

Meanwhile, nothing was done toward making the 
" experiment" ordered. Toward the end of 1529 the 
crown remarked his astonishment that the governor 
who had acknowledged receipt of instructions to him- 
self and to the bishop in this matter, had nevertheless re- 
ported nothing done in obedience to them. Not until 
March, 1530, did Bishop Ramirez present to the council 
of Santiago the cedulas he had concerning this matter. 
He had held it in abeyance a year nor even then, having 
so presented his cedulas, did he take any action toward 
executing them. The council reminded him of his duty 
in a session which broke up in a brawl between council- 



148 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

men on one side and governor and bishop on the 
other. 

It was April, 1531, before Governor Guzman seriously 
undertook that "experiment" as the documents in- 
variably call it. An encomendero named Pedro de Moron 
had died, leaving unassigned some 120 natives in two 
villages (both, possibly, in the Manzanillo district). 
These were chosen for the "experiment"; no selection, 
it will be observed, of the most capable was attempted 
despite the crown's orders on this point. Guzman com- 
missioned a priest named Francisco Guerrero to as- 
semble these natives, especially the principal men, and to 
advise them that if they proved competent, the crown 
was disposed to give them "a different liberty than that 
they had had." He was to tell them that they were 
thenceforth to live "like farmers of Castile" in a town 
of their own near Bayamo; their removal to that site 
was commanded on penalty of their being "com- 
mended" as usual or given away from their homes as 
naborias. Some difficulty in persuading them to leave 
their native villages was foreseen. Guerrero was to 
oversee their farms (corn and cotton were anticipated 
as their crops) and their hog-ranches. They were to 
pay tithes to the church and, to the crown, whatever 
was lawfully demanded. They were not to associate 
with encomendados. No idolatry was to be tolerated. 
If they still retained faith in the beliefs of their fathers, 
then they were "bad Christians" and Guerrero was to 
remind them that "bad Christians" were burned, as 
doubtless they had been made aware in the cases I have 
mentioned of Juan Munoz and Escalante. They were 
to be taught that all their former notions of religion 
were the devil's inspirations; they were to be instructed 



"DIFFERENT LIBERTY" (TO 1535) 149 

in Catholicism, and to pray and work on a schedule 
which Guerrero was to draw up and see observed. Gov- 
ernor Guzman expected that these freed Cubenos would 
spend their time in dancing, "a ruinous custom," he 
said, but unfortunately one that must be tolerated since 
the crown so commanded. They were to enjoy their 
own festivals but they were not, Guzman insisted, to 
be allowed to paint themselves nor to wear "those 
masks and devilish figures they are accustomed to put 
on (frontal amulets?)." The spirit of the governor's 
commission and instruction to Guerrero (the document 
has been preserved) indicates that he had little faith 
in the experiment and, 'obviously, he made it only under 
pressure he could no longer resist. He was not alone 
in his poor opinion of the natives. " Indians," Lope 
Hurtado wrote, "are not capable, nor have they a 
thought save to eat and idle and offend Our Lord nor 
is it of any use for priests to bring them up from youth 
nor to train them in other houses that they may believe 
in God, for as a parrot is taught to speak so they recite 
but when returned to their own they become like them, 
and worse than they, and so experience has demon- 
strated." The bishop was no more optimistic as to 
the outcome of "the experiment" so inaugurated. 
Vadillo considered it an element of disturbance and 
would have distributed the natives concerned as encom- 
endados if he had had the necessary authority. Neither 
was Manuel de Rojas as successful in demonstrating the 
Cubenos' capacity or incapacity to live "like farmers 
in Castile" as he had been in making evident their 
ability to die in their own fashion. 

He succeeded to Guzman's joint jurisdiction with the 
bishop in the matter of repartimiento. He reported that 



150 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

"the experiment" had not been made in accordance 
with royal cedulas to the point, citing specifically the 
detail that no selection of capable Cubefios had been 
made for the test, — no choice exercised among those 
title to which had vacated during the given period the 
crown cited, — instead Pedro de Moron's lot had been 
delivered over to Guerrero of whose management of 
them Rojas did not approve. When the year expired 
for which Guzman had commissioned this priest to 
conduct "the experiment" Rojas declined for cause to 
continue him, naming Gaspar Caro in his place. Nei- 
ther was Rojas happy in his selection of this man for 
Caro, alleging sickness, presently deserted his post and 
the Cubefios in his charge scattered though they were 
eventually collected together again. It would appear 
that Rojas at first believed there were Cubefios among 
the encomendados who were competent to "live like 
Spaniards," and he requested authority to remove them 
as he saw fit from the control of their masters en- 
comenderos, granting liberty to all who requested free- 
dom of him and on examination proved themselves 
competent, in his opinion, to maintain themselves. The 
crown issued such authority to him and the bishop 
jointly. Cubefios so freed were to pay vassalage at 
specified rates : married men, three pesos each and three 
for every male member of the household over twenty 
years of age; single men over twenty, three pesos per 
annum; all males between fifteen and twenty years, 
one peso per capita, yearly. Caciques were to be free of 
every obligation except this tribute, and all honors their 
people desired to show them were to be theirs to enjoy. 
Evidently Rojas had not hesitated to state that re- 
volt and unrest among the natives were due to Spanish 



"DIFFERENT LIBERTY" (TO 1535) 151 

mistreatment. He mentioned as a detail of this mis- 
treatment that "collectors" of runaway Cubefios, who 
evidently hunted them down out of the hills, sometimes 
brought their catches in bound and mishandled. Rojas 
suggested that natives be forbidden to pass from one 
district to another but that when they did so to escape 
from encomenderos, they should not be returned to such 
masters if investigation showed that cruelty they had 
endured justified their conduct. He thought that 
danger of losing encomendados might induce encomen- 
deros to treat their Cubenos better. The crown (Sep- 
tember, 1532) approved and ordered two regidores and 
six other good citizens to be named a committee to act 
with the governor and bishop to carry this plan into 
execution. Meanwhile, what provisions Rojas and 
Ramirez made in this matter were to be obeyed. In 
September, 1533, Sebastian Muniz, the bishop's pro- 
visor, Pedro de Paz and Hernando de Castro, regidores, 
and six other residents consulted with the governor in 
committee as the crown had commanded. "Collectors" 
of runaway encomendados, they reported, had not for 
some time been employed nor would be again; and they 
were not willing to follow Rojas in humane policies that 
jeopardized any encomendero' s right to his natives, not 
even his right to abuse them. 

At just about this juncture Rojas' attention was dis- 
tracted by a negro uprising (November, 1533) at the 
new mines of Jobabo. From Bayamo he despatched 
men under Esteban de Lagos to quell this disturbance. 
The four negroes involved defended themselves to the 
death: their heads were brought in as trophies of what 
I believe was the first "black rebellion" in the island. 

While in Bayamo en route to the mines at this time 



152 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Rojas announced to the Cubenos of "the experiment" 
whose village was nearby, the crown's intention as 
expressed in the cedula of September 28, 1532, i. e., to 
permit those Cubenos who asked and merited liberty 
to have it on payment of specified amount of vassalage, 
or, as Rojas interpreted this to them, since they had 
been a long time independent in that village without 
any benefit being apparent as result of the arrangement, 
the crown had decided to experiment further with fifteen 
or twenty of them on the conditions laid down in that 
cedula which they were to talk over among themselves 
that they might develop opinions to express to him 
later. 

The following July being again in Bayamo Rojas 
was reminded by cedulas he received there of the matter 
of Cubenos' liberty. He had not meanwhile forgotten 
it for, as he travelled through the island on a tour of 
inspection he had notified the encomendados especially 
at the mines of the terms on which they might possibly 
secure liberty and one of these, "a good Indian called 
Diego, a naburia of Diego de Ovando," followed the 
governor into Bayamo to ask the liberty promised for 
himself and for his wife who accompanied him: until 
such time as his petition could be acted upon he stayed 
with the others of "the experiment" whom Rojas and 
the bishop's provisor were soon to visit and examine. 

Mufiiz who had taken part for the bishop in the con- 
ference held at Santiago the preceding September 
seems thereafter to have declined to assist Rojas. 
Fray Antonio de Toledo, guardian of the Franciscan 
monastery "obeyed" a cedula ordering him to take a 
hand in the matter but excused himself from complying 
with it on the ground that it was his business to pray 



"DIFFERENT LIBERTY" (TO 1535) 153 

in tranquillity for the king and for the people, — not to 
mix in vexed and disturbing problems such as this one. 
However, the Bachiller Andrada, — "who seems to be 
honorable and well educated," said Rojas, — had mean- 
time arrived to replace Muniz as bishop's pro visor, 
and he was well disposed to act with the governor in 
this matter. They decided to attend to it immediately 
after Christmas (1534), and as soon as the holidays 
were over they proceeded together to "the experiment" 
village near Bayamo where they found the Cubefios 
concerned almost all in their places, with no com- 
plaints to make of abuses, extortions or mistreatment 
against Caro or against one Poveda who succeeded him 
in charge. Rojas and Andrada examined them as to 
their capacity to be free and the governor reported that 
"by their own will to continue the experiment," some 
thirty-two or three adults were selected (with their 
children making up a number of perhaps forty persons) 
who remained at least nominally independent in the 
village. Their spiritual guardianship was committed 
to "one Francisco Maldonado, clerigo, an honest and 
competent person," and Alonso de Poveda, resident 
in Bayamo, was selected "to protect them politically 
and favor and defend them," all according to instruc- 
tions which were formulated. These two Spaniards 
drew salaries which the Cubefios paid as also they now 
saw paid out of their earnings all salary in arrears due 
Guerrero and Caro, and twenty pesos on account of 
the vassalage due to the crown. Twelve pesos of what 
they had earned was given to them in shovels and 
hatchets which "it seemed they needed." Evidence 
showed that the gold they had mined under Guerrero 
had all been spent "by judge's order." Rojas informed 



154 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

the crown that the rest of the village, some forty other 
persons, said they preferred to serve some master who 
would treat them well, rather than to undertake the 
responsibility of complying with the king's cedula 
which required payment of vassalage, etc., and there- 
fore some thirty-four of them were forthwith " de- 
posited" with Juan de Vergara "that he may make 
moderate use of them under certain conditions by which 
they may be better treated." All these provisions were 
subject to further orders the crown might issue, as the 
result of the rearrangement made itself evident. 

Doubt that those Cubenos who were " commended" 
chose such service entirely of their own free will is 
aroused by the detail that of three given in compliance 
with cedula to that effect to Bachiller Diego Lopez, 
dean of the cathedral chapter, one (a fisherman) could 
not be found when it came to delivery " because the old 
ones among these Indians cannot endure association 
with us." A woman and child were assigned to the dean 
to take the place of the recalcitrant old fisherman and 
Maldonado too received one naboria encomendada for 
his personal service. 

The Cubenos of the " experiment" being so disposed 
of, Rojas and the pro visor turned their attention to the 
cases of natives from outside Bayamo who presented 
themselves to ask for liberty and to demonstrate their 
capacity to enjoy it. When on visiting the mines Rojas 
had announced the crown's order that freedom be 
given competent Cubenos who demanded it, four or 
five native men who knew Spanish proclaimed their 
intention to take advantage of the opportunity, but 
now (oddly enough!) none of them appeared, despite 
the fact that it was widely known that the governor 



"DIFFERENT LIBERTY" (TO 1535) 155 

and provisor were in Bayamo acting in the matter. 
Diego who with his wife had followed the governor 
from Puerto Principe to Bayamo to obtain freedom 
was found lacking in religious instruction "although 
more developed in manner of living;" he and his wife 
were included in the number of Cubenos with whom 
the " experiment" village was continued. Another 
Cubeno named Cascorro, who was one of Rojas' own 
encomendados "mediumly instructed in our faith 
though stupid in everything else," was similarly dis- 
posed of; he was compelled to give up his wife, to which 
he agreed. Another native " experienced and apt, to 
all appearances . . . said he wanted to be free along 
with his wife;" when Rojas, "knowing that she was 
old and intractable (one old Indian woman does more 
damage and destruction than many men no matter 
how bad!)" agreed to free him but not her, he dis- 
appeared "when he understood what was said, and 
did not again ask for liberty." Three other men who 
had come into Bayamo vanished "when they learned 
the conditions." These details suggest a drama full 
of bitter tragedy. One Alonso Cabezas, native of 
Santo Domingo, who had entirely proved his capacity 
to maintain himself by doing so on wages, was never- 
theless with his duly wedded wife, committed to the 
village "because association with him would benefit 
the rest . . . and he was satisfied" with the decision. 
It does not appear that any who solicited freedom ac- 
tually obtained anything approaching it, as the old 
Cubenos, — still intractable! — had known it when they 
fished and hunted and tilled the soil at their own good 
pleasure for their own benefit, and danced away the 
plentiful leisure that they loved. 



156 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Doubtless Rojas had done his best, according to his 
light, yet the settlement he made of the whole matter 
of "the experiment" satisfied few. Among the lot 
assigned to Vergara was a cacique called Anaya and his 
wife whose daughter remained in the village. They 
sought to get her away secretly, and failing, they 
hung her and themselves in the bush to which appar- 
ently they had fled. The people of Bayamo were not 
satisfied because they claimed that Vergara being their 
procurador to obtain these natives in encomienda for 
them had played them false and got them for himself. 
That he was a newcomer, a single man engaged in trade 
with Tierra Firme, aggravated the case. His acquisi- 
tion of over thirty encomendados gave him more than 
any of the old settlers with two exceptions. In fact, 
six or seven vecinos together had not so many now as 
he. Rojas himself could not "before God and his 
conscience" report on the matter in any sense except 
unfavorably because he felt and believed that without 
strict supervision to compel them to work the natives 
would not of their own free will accomplish anything 
"although it may well be that some few may arrive 
safely in port. And this I say," he added, "because 
five years now, and more, have passed in this experi- 
ment and in the four years that I have had charge I 
have many times looked into and considered their 
affairs and I cannot discover more benefit the last year 
than the first. Before God and on my conscience it 
seems to me that it would be wiser to order them com- 
mended to some resident (of Bayamo)," provision being 
made that any who on their own initiative asked 
freedom and seemed fit for it should be granted it for 
a year in which time they were to prove their capacity. 



"DIFFERENT LIBERTY" (TO 1535) 157 

If they failed to prove it they were to be " recom- 
mended." Speaking generally Rojas had lost what 
hope he seemed in an earlier day to have that Cubefios 
might accomplish anything save by compulsion. The 
crown approved, for the time being, all that Rojas had 
done with respect to the natives. 



CHAPTER X 

THE LURE OF FLORIDA (TO 1543) 

Esta tierra se va acabando. — Lope Hurtado, 54-1-34. 

. . . Esta ysla esta muy disposeyda y muy huerfana de quien 
por ella haga y si vuestra Magestad no la remedie ella va muy 
perdida y la perdicion delta es que el gobernador Hernando de 
Soto se yra a su conquista de la Florida y procurara sacar todos 
los espanoles que mas provechosos son para sostener esta ysla en 
paz. — Documentos Ineditos, 2nd Series, Vol. II, p. 39. 

Now old actors were given one last turn upon Cuba's 
stage, and then swept unceremoniously to their exit 
as Time gave their cue to new, romantic, and adven- 
turous characters in her drama. 

Manuel de Rojas had just returned from a tour of 
inspection of the island which the law required him to 
make when, in August, 1534, Gonzalo de Guzman 
came back from Spain. Guzman's desire to see his 
affairs as Vadillo had left them referred to the council 
for the Indies in Spain rather than to the audiencia of 
Santo Domingo would indicate that he believed he 
had influence with that higher body and events justified 
his confidence, for he proved able to move the council 
very materially to lighten Vadillo 's hearty condemna- 
tion of him, obtaining ameliorations or reversals of the 
licenciado's sentences. He had exchanged his packet 
of memorials and eulogies for as many royal cedulas of 
favorable tone and with them and with gifts for rela- 
tives and friends, with new furniture and silverware 

158 



THE LURE OF FLORIDA (TO 1543) 159 

for his house and new clothes for himself and his family, 
he came ashore "like the master of the island." .Also 
he had in his pocket an appointment as governor of 
Cuba which had been sent to him while he was in Spain 
by the vireine, from Santo Domingo. The council for 
the Indies had objected to her choice but these objec- 
tions had been overcome and through Juan de Samano, 
secretary, the council presently bade Guzman use that 
commission, admonishing him, however, to refrain 
from abusing his office by seeking to avenge himself 
upon his personal enemies. 

Rojas seems to have been willing enough to deliver 
over the governorship, but the city council questioned 
whether or not to recognize the vireine' s commission. 
When, however, a royal cedula was received in which 
Guzman was addressed as governor, Rojas held that 
to be sufficient evidence of the crown's intention and 
on October 28th, 1535, he gave over the office although 
not until the following December did royal order 
arrive that Guzman be received on the vireine' s ap- 
pointment. 

Rojas had been repeatedly demanding that his 
residencia be taken and that he be relieved of an office 
which was both ungrateful and expensive. " Sacred 
majesty," he wrote, "my desire was never nor shall be, 
God willing, other than to serve your majesty with 
what I am and all that I possess, but I can no longer 
maintain myself because in addition to the expenses I 
incurred in the conquest of the rebel Indians under 
Guama(n) and in many other matters of the sort which 
presented themselves, I spent much in visiting the is- 
land, on which journey I was absent six months, and 
there is the ordinary expense I am under in this city (of 



160 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Santiago), which, being outside my own house, is great." 
He desired leave to go to Peru where he had a brother, 
Gabriel de Rojas, successful in business, and this, 
eventually, was granted but not until some years later 
after, for instance, he had served the crown in Jamaica 
in auditing accounts there, and in Cuba as special judge 
of cases involving the royal officials of the island and 
also Guzman with charges of fraud. There is record of 
Rojas in Peru; I have not found any indication that he 
ever returned to Cuba. I believe he died in Spain. 
Vadillo declared Manuel de Rojas was "wise, upright, 
well-intentioned, and made peace among the people like 
a good judge." That a man of these qualities, distin- 
guishable through all that he wrote and all that he did, 
should have found it advisable to abandon Cuba in his 
old age and after long years of most commendable pub- 
lic activity, is a commentary upon the gratitude of 
princes: "We will remember your services," the crown 
responded to Rojas' plea for release from office, which 
brief words seem to have been the extent of his reward. 
His departure is also the strongest possible commentary 
upon the character of Gonzalo de Guzman and of his 
administrations, for unquestionably Guzman's presence 
in the island and in office augmented Rojas' determina- 
tion to betake himself to distant Peru. 

Indeed, Guzman's return created consternation 
throughout the colony. Pedro de Paz, the accountant, 
with all his family, removed to Spain in March, 1535, 
leaving his office with Gonzalo de Medina, whom Hur- 
tado characterized as capable but crooked. Guzman 
lamented his departure, evidently regretting to see Paz 
so escape his ability to annoy. Paz was reported to the 
crown to be very ill when he arrived in Seville in the 



THE LURE OF FLORIDA (TO 1543) 161 

following May, and presently he died, leaving consid- 
erable property to his children and to his widow, Dona 
Guiomar de Guzman, a sister, I think, of Gonzalo de 
Guzman, who did certainly demonstrate in later years 
that she had all the Guzman disposition, which was, 
however, at the present juncture best displayed by 
Gonzalo himself. Other persons who were out of his 
favor hastened to remove themselves beyond his reach. 

Now suddenly a very important change in the is- 
land's affairs occurred, as a stroke of lightning: the 
cardinal of Siguenza made his decision in a certain 
law suit between the heirs of Columbus and the crown, 
and Luis Colon renounced to the crown rights (which 
he had claimed by virtue of agreements and privileges) 
and all exercise of jurisdiction over the island of Cuba. 
Those officials in Cuba, — 'the governor and sheriffs, — ■ 
whose authority emanated from Colon were instructed 
to resign to the municipal councils. These were com- 
manded to elect two alcaldes yearly in whom was to 
vest such judicial authority in first instance, civil and 
criminal, as formerly appertained to the governorship; 
appeal was to the audiencia. No alcalde was eligible 
to immediate reelection; royal officials were ineligible 
to be alcaldes. Cedula to this effect was obeyed in Cuba 
on March 20th, 1537, when Guzman and the sheriff 
and the clerk de juzgado resigned accordingly. There 
was no indication that the crown intended to appoint 
a governor. 

In reporting this change of government to the crown 
the city council protested that a governor "or judicial 
head" of the colony should be designated. Given the 
requirements of eligibility to the office of alcalde, — 'that 
is, two years' lapse of time between expiration of term 



162 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

and reelection to the office, royal officials and their 
substitutes being ineligible, — ■" there are lacking," the 
council said, "honorable persons" to be so chosen. Not 
more than four or five in town were suitable for the 
position. The council requested that a return be made 
to the old law whereby the council chose the alcaldes: 
the council, that body assured the crown, could be 
relied upon to select proper incumbents. The "pot 
luck" system of election had not always done so, or so 
Guzman at least had previously remarked. The popu- 
lar choice, he objected, being unduly influenced, pre- 
ferred "the tailor and the butcher," and other persons 
of such quality that it was prejudicial to their betters 
to be commanded by them. When, however, Guzman 
and the council had urged that this unusual democratic 
method of election (in vogue in no other colony, they 
said) be abandoned, the crown contented itself with 
bidding them report on the point in detail, — after they 
had called the people together and publicly consulted 
with them. I have found no record of any such con- 
ference. There was, however, issued a cedula providing 
that a candidate to the office of alcalde must be "honor- 
able," competent, and know how to read and write. 
Alcaldes holding office for the limited term of a year 
would not, the council feared, take the welfare of the 
island and the crown thoroughly to heart; moreover, 
no residencia hanging over them, they might prove 
tyrannical. Appeal from the alcaldes to the audiencia 
entailed in minor cases prohibitive expense and detri- 
mental delay. It was mildly intimated that in providing 
for the good of his service the king might well continue 
Guzman in the governorship. 
However, there having appeared at court "Captain 



THE LURE OF FLORIDA (TO 1543) 163 

Soto of Peru, ... a rich man," anxious to continue 
in adventures of conquest and said to be well able to 
indulge himself in that direction, he was made governor 
of Cuba (May 4th, 1537), — 'the first to be directly com- 
missioned by the crown. The intention was that he 
make the island his base of operations against Florida. 
For twenty years Florida had been Pandora's box to 
the Spaniards, — 'an unknown country which, especially 
after the amazing conquest of Mexico, it was antici- 
pated would be found to contain incomparable treasure. 
Ponce de Leon was beaten back to Havana from its in- 
hospitable coasts, wounded to the death. Lucas Vaz- 
quez de Ay lion found his grave "in the sea to which 
their fate consigned so many other captains and gov- 
ernors, before and after the Licenciado Ayllon, and this 
was the end of his administration in Florida." Panfilo 
de Narvaez, returning minus an eye from his encounter 
with Cortes in Mexico, found that his faithful wife, 
Maria de Valenzuela, with whom he had left his estate 
at Bayamo, had proven a profitable administrator. On 
her savings he betook himself to court (1526-27) where 
he procured appointment as adelantado and governor 
of that same Florida of which marvels were still ex- 
pected. His expedition cleared from Sant Lucar, tar- 
ried a month in Santo Domingo for horses where a 
hundred and forty of his men deserted him (all this 
according to the historian Oviedo), evidently believing 
the prospects brighter to west and south than the ex- 
perience of Ponce and Ayllon and wandering traders 
like Miruelo had proven them to be to the northwest. 
From Santo Domingo Narvaez came on, to Cuba. A 
hurricane which in October, 1527, amid wide damage 
levelled the little settlement of Trinidad, wrecked two 



164 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

of his half dozen ships on the south coast of the island. 
Narvaez himself with the rest seems to have ridden out 
the storm in Santiago's sheltered harbor. Sixty men 
and twenty horses were drowned in this catastrophe. 
The expedition wintered at Xagua, Guzman the gov- 
ernor and especially Vasco Porcallo assisting Narvaez 
to recuperate. In February, it seems, of 1528, he set 
out from Xagua for Florida, having enlisted some men 
to replace those who deserted in La Espanola; because 
there was a feeling that this expedition was ill-starred 
there was no stampede in Cuba to Narvaez's banner. 
In 1535 his treasurer, Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca, two 
other Spaniards and a negro, made their way into the 
Spanish settlements at Panuco: they were all that re- 
mained alive of Narvaez 's band. Their odyssey made 
them the first explorers of territory which is now south- 
western United States and Mexico. Their adelantado 
and governor got not so far: the last they saw of him 
he was in a small boat with a pilot named Anton Perez 
and a page of his named Campo (he was thin and sick 
and full of scurvy), — night settled down, a heavy north 
wind blew, and in the morning there was nothing to be 
seen of that wretched trio. "May God in his infinite 
mercy have pardoned Narvaez 's soul, against his sins 
offsetting what he suffered and his cruel death." His 
industrious widow, Maria de Valenzuela, in vain sent 
caravels to his relief. Hernando de Caballos to whom 
she entrusted them seems to have betrayed her interests, 
for a price ceasing to prosecute her law suits against 
Narvaez 's enemies in Mexico and there selling her 
caravels. Her suits-at-law against this faithless agent 
pursued him to Spain, where, it is pleasant to learn, he 
was at one time "a prisoner in chains." To console 



THE LURE OF FLORIDA (TO 1543) 165 

her, Narvaez's widow possessed at least one son, Diego 
de Narvaez who, when de Soto set out upon the road 
his father had travelled, was apparently in Mexico 
pressing the law suits Caballos had compromised. 

Alvar Nunez Cabeza de Vaca told his story of hard- 
ship at the Spanish court in 1537; he added, however, 
that among the Florida Indians he had seen precious 
metals and emeralds. He himself evidently retained 
no desire to investigate into the origin of these, for 
the rest of his history lies in South America; but there 
were enough others who, knowing less of Florida and 
its inhabitants than he, became eager to try their hand 
at its stubborn conquest when they heard the provisions 
of de Soto's appointment to undertake that enterprise. 

These provisions, which dealt definitely with gold 
and silver and pearls and precious stones, were enough 
to fire the rapacity of any Spaniard and render him 
totally oblivious of fact. The Inca in his " Florida" 
tells how when these provisions were made public 
throughout the peninsula all the talk was of the new 
undertaking, — that Hernando de Soto was off to win 
great kingdoms and provinces for the crown of Spain. 
After Mexico, Peru had yielded to its conquerors superb 
spoils, — spoils in quantity and value almost beyond 
belief, — and a hundred thousand ducats were the share 
in it which fell to Hernando de Soto as a principal 
captain in the emprise; he had been Pizarro's lieutenant 
governor at Cuzco. This sum included what the In- 
dians of that city presented to him when he and Pedro 
del Barco, alone, went into the capital, and what the 
king Atahuallpa gave to him: Atahuallpa was fond of 
de Soto because he was the first Spaniard he met and 
talked with. With this fortune de Soto returned from 



166 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Peru to Spain and although he might have bought with 
it an estate and corresponding position in his native 
province (of Villanueva de Barcarota) he did not care 
to do so; instead, animated by recollection of his 
adventures in Peru he desired to undertake others as 
great or greater, if greater there might be, and there- 
fore he went to Valladolid where the court was and 
asked commission of the crown to conquer the kingdom 
of Florida, all at his own expense and risk. When it was 
everywhere known that Captain de Soto was not con- 
tent with the hundred thousand ducats he had got out 
of Peru but was spending it all on this other expedition, 
every one marvelled and concluded that the new under- 
taking must be a greater and richer adventure than the 
preceding had been: therefore from all parts of Spain 
many gentlemen of illustrious lineage, many nobles, 
many experienced soldiers who had served the Spanish 
crown in various parts of both the Old World and the 
new, many simple citizens and even laborers, nocked 
to join his standard at Sant Lucar de Barrameda. With 
hopes set on obtaining the gold and the silver and the 
priceless gems de Soto's commission enumerated, with 
knowledge that Mexico and Peru had yielded just such 
profits by the boatload, — and utterly heedless that 
Florida had so far done nothing whatsoever of the 
sort, — they sold their properties, abandoned parents, 
relatives and friends, and offered themselves for the 
expedition. 

De Soto meanwhile had selected officers to serve 
under him and every man worked bravely at his par- 
ticular task. Ships had been purchased and partially 
provisioned; arms and munitions had been bought, 
and men enlisted. On April 6th, 1538, the expedition 



THE LURE OF FLORIDA (TO 1543) 167 

sailed away from Sant Lucar, — the most brilliant and 
probably the best equipped that ever cleared from 
Spain, and destined to as dire disaster as ever befell 
any brave company. 

The adelantado and his wife, the Lady Isabel de 
Bobadilla (daughter of Pedro de Arias under whom 
"without anything else of his own, save his sword and 
target," de Soto set out to find his fortune in the New 
World) with all their household, including three white 
slave women, were aboard the San Cristobal, flagship 
not only of de Soto's own fleet but also of a fleet of 
merchantmen bound for Mexico which travelled with 
him almost as far as Cuba. They put in at La Gomera, 
an island of the Canaries, where the Count de Gomera 
received them with festivities. When they departed 
they carried with them a daughter of the count's, the 
Lady Leonor de Bobadilla, seventeen years old and 
exceedingly lovely, whom de Soto had begged her 
father to permit to accompany her aunt, the Lady 
Isabel. He promised to see Dona Leonor married, to 
make her a great lady during the conquest he was com- 
mencing, and the count consented, relying on de Soto's 
magnanimity, certain that he would do even more than 
he offered. En route de Soto's second in command, 
Captain Nufio de Tobar, won her; he was dismissed 
from his post when de Soto discovered that on arriving 
in Santiago the pair married secretly. Since history 
seems to be silent thereafter concerning Captain Nufio 
de Tobar and the Lady Leonor we are free to imagine 
that they lived happy ever afterwards, counting all the 
treasures of the kingdom of Florida which they might 
have had, well lost for love. 

De Soto's fleet appeared off Santiago early in June, 



168 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

1538. The entrance to that harbor is narrow. On the 
right of ships seeking entrance is a steep and rocky 
headland the heights of which dominate the navigable 
channel: here Vadillo had built a watchtower. On 
the left the land lies lower. The channel turns to the 
right around a small rocky inlet now called Smith's 
Key, to the left of which are dangerous shallows. This, 
however, was unknown to de Soto's ships, inexperienced 
in these seas, so as they neared land and a man on horse- 
back signalled them from the height to bear to the left 
they obeyed; but when they came near enough for him 
to realize that they were friends, not enemy ships as 
he had supposed, he began to yell orders to the con- 
trary: "Port your helm or you are wrecked!" They 
did so, but de Soto's flagship brought up with a bang 
on Smith's Key nevertheless. There was an awful 
crash below and the pumps began to bring up water 
and vinegar and wine and honey. Small boats were 
lowered away and the Lady Isabel and her household 
were set ashore but not before some young gentlemen 
not accustomed to dangers at sea had disgraced them- 
selves by piling into boats ahead of the women, " con- 
sidering it no time for gallantry." De Soto himself 
would not abandon the vessel until it should be neces- 
sary. It did not become so, for when sailors investi- 
gated they found the total damage was broken bottles 
which poured their contents within the pumps' reach. 
The ship itself remained sound, and those who had 
forsaken it in all haste became the butt of their com- 
panions' ridicule. De Soto landed at Santiago on 
June 7th (or 9th), 1538, and was by the council re- 
ceived as governor. His six hundred or so men were 
quartered on the vecinos. 



THE LURE OF FLORIDA (TO 1543) 169 

At about the same time there arrived, too, Bishop 
Don Fray Diego Sarmiento, succeeding Ramirez, de- 
ceased. He came assured of a thousand ducats a year 
salary (the crown making up any deficit between his 
share of the tithes and this amount) ; and with permis- 
sion to bring six slaves with him, to enter goods free 
of duty, and to enjoy possession of twenty Indian 
encomendados for his personal service and the church's. 

The city extended the new governor and the new 
bishop the best welcome of which it was capable, mak- 
ing what poor show of festival its few and humble 
citizens could display. There were, the Inca says, 
dances and masques at night, and bull-fights and horse- 
races by day, but there were no joustings nor attempts 
at tournament for no equipment therefor was available. 
To those who excelled in skill at arms or in riding, or 
in composition of poetry for the occasion, or in elegance 
of attire, prizes of jewels of gold and silver, silks and 
brocades were awarded. To witness these events the 
principal colonists of the island came into Santiago, 
bringing with them their fleetest and finest horses. 
De Soto and his officers possessed themselves of many 
of these animals: they were necessary to their plans 
with respect to Florida. 

Among the settlers who appeared on this occasion 
was Vasco Porcallo de Figueroa, whom Velazquez had 
established twenty-five years before in Camaguey. 
There he had made himself rich, in lands and cattle and 
servitors; and he had made himself feared through the 
middle of the island by acts of barbarous cruelty. He 
was dazzled by de Soto's magnificence (to which he 
added by princely gifts of horses) and when it was 
offered him he proudly accepted Nufio de Tobar's post 



170 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

as second in command of the expedition to Florida. 
In August, 1538, de Soto sent his household and his 
infantry to Havana via the north coast in the five 
ships which now constituted his fleet. He and the 
cavalry followed overland in detachments, and Vasco 
Porcallo rode with the adelantado, aiding him not a 
little, — materially from means at his command, and 
morally by his corresponding influence throughout the 
island. Santiago saw them go with greater pleasure 
than she had seen de Soto come. 

From Havana where de Soto and all his expedition 
met by Christmas of 1538, he despatched Juan de 
Anasco and fifty men to reconnoitre the Florida coast 
and locate a port suitable for the landing of his expedi- 
tion. In two months Anasco returned, without satis- 
factory information. He went back and reappeared in 
three months. He and his men had come near death: 
the Inca says that in response to a vow made in ex- 
tremity they sought Havana's church on their knees 
from the wharf, and thanked the Virgin and their 
saints for delivery, even before they reported to the 
governor. Espiritu Santo bay (which still bears the 
name they gave it) was selected for the expedition's 
landing place, and in late May, 1539, de Soto cleared 
from Havana for that point with nine ships, 237 horses 
and 513 men, not including seamen. He was fully 
supplied with provisions, — cazabi bread, corn and beef 
on the hoof, — and he left all arranged for the forward- 
ing of more of the same, especially from estates he 
had bought for the purpose., In July, 1539, having 
landed him in safety, six of his ships came back to 
Havana, to the order of his wife, the Lady Isabel, 
whom he left in charge as acting governor over the 



THE LURE OF FLORIDA (TO 1543) 171 " 

island of Cuba with Juan de Rojas as her lieutenant 
in Havana. 

Presently, Vasco Porcallo came home: pitched from 
his horse headlong into a swamp, he decided that 
Camaguey was the place for an old man, and thither 
he returned, leaving a sullen half-breed son of his to 
serve valiantly in his stead. Gomez Arias came, with 
reports of the excellence of Florida for the Lady Isabel, 
and all Cuba was called upon to render solemn thanks 
for the prosperity of the expedition. Toward the end 
of February, 1540, Diego Maldonado put into Havana 
with de Soto's orders to meet him again, in a given 
Florida port, in the following October with reinforce- 
ments of men, arms, munitions, and food supplies. 

While he and others worked on de Soto's orders, 
draining the island of Cuba weaker yet of provisions 
and horses and men, to fill eight good ships for his re- 
inforcement, with which they presently sailed away to 
the Florida coast, the Cubenos, dancing after their 
tribal custom through long noisy nights, sang that 
Spanish domination in Cuba was near its end since 
only the infirm and the spiritless were left in the land. 

De Soto did not appear at the Florida port where 
he had bidden Gomez Arias and Diego Maldonado to 
rejoin him in October of 1540. They waited long at 
the rendezvous and then returned to Havana to carry 
to the Lady Isabel the ominous news that he had not 
joined them there. Next year and the year after and 
again the year after that (1543), those two "good and 
loyal gentlemen" searched the gulf coast from the 
Florida peninsula to Vera Cruz, leaving messages carved 
in trees, hiding them in recesses, hiring Indians to carry 
letters inland; it did not seem possible that so big and 



172 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

brave a company should have perished, leaving not a 
vestige. 

Not until the month of October, 1543, were tidings 
received. Three hundred of de Soto's men had reached 
the Spanish settlements of Panuco, but their leader lay 
behind them, sunk beneath the dark waters of a great 
river he had discovered. Maldonado and Gomez Arias 
brought this news to the faithful Lady Isabel: to the 
ruin of his fortune, wreck of his estate and loss of 
honors, she saw added the certainty of de Soto's death. 
Rough old Vasco Porcallo came up from Camaguey to 
comfort her. Early chroniclers say she died of a broken 
heart: but unpoetic documents prove that she lived for 
many years longer to prosecute in Spain certain curious 
law suits against Hernan Ponce with whom de Soto 
had a lifehold " universal" partnership in all things. 



CHAPTER XI 

EBB TIDE, — ORTIZ, DE AVtLA, CHAVES (1538-1550) 

Es la verdad todos estan fatigados de infortunios y trabajos 
que (les) han venido. — Gonzalo de Guzman, 54r-l-34. 

De Soto in departing left Cuba to sink into depths 
of neglect. The administrations of his alcalde mayor 
Bartolome Ortiz, and of the governors Lie. Juanes de 
Avila and Lie. Antonio Chaves, mark low water in the 
island's affairs. The most obvious matter of interest in 
these years was the struggle of the crown to set the 
natives free in fact; the colonists, laboring to circum- 
vent this policy, won the governors over to disobedience 
of the royal commands. 

Documents at Seville for this period are neither as 
numerous nor as consecutive as might be desired. 

Quite frankly both the crown and de Soto intended 
that Cuba should be the base for operations of the 
campaign against Florida which his expedition con- 
stituted. In de Soto's commission as governor of the 
island it was provided that he might delegate his duties 
as such to an alcalde mayor, for whom a salary of 200 
pesos a year payable from Cuban revenues was provided. 
De Soto's own salary of 500 ducats as governor of Cuba 
(this was the first time the office carried any stipend) 
was made payable from those funds it was anticipated 
would accrue from Florida- 

173 



174 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

In May preceding de Soto's landing Baracoa had been 
burned by cimarrones (wild Indians) who expected the 
peaceful encomendados of the locality to rise and join 
them; instead forty of these latter went out against 
the rebels to fight them but would consent to no Span- 
iard accompanying their war party. When de Soto 
arrived the city council of Santiago had squads of men 
in the field against the rebels. The council had already' 
asked Spain for fifty crossbows which the crown ordered 
sent with the understanding that the settlers would 
pay for them. De Soto evidently approved of the 
council's activities against the natives for he imme- 
diately sent still more men (white, black and red) from 
Santiago and from Bayamo, against them, at the ex- 
pense of a tax "for defence against rebels, wild Indians 
and against the French" levied, I believe on merchan- 
dise imported. The crown approved this tax and even 
permitted it to be increased. It was doubtless due to 
his encouragement that the colony repeated its request 
for arms and munitions up to a total of 50,000 mara- 
vedises: the crown ordered them sent provided that the 
settlers paid for them. The crown expressed displeasure 
that the natives in uprising should have interfered with 
mining and in authorizing the raising of campaign 
funds by taxation, sanctioned such warfare on ci- 
marrones as should end disorder. No sooner had de 
Soto left the east end of the island, sweeping the coun- 
try clean of fighting men as he went, than the natives of 
that section renewed their revolt. They again threat- 
ened Baracoa. Bartolome Ortiz (de Soto's alcalde 
mayor) sent inadequate reinforcements to that settle- 
ment's relief: their guides massacred the soldiers. The 
citizens of Santiago and Bayamo refused to furnish 



EBB TIDE —ORTIZ, DE AVILA, CHAVES (1538-1550) 175 

Cubenos to help put down the revolt. Ortiz's only 
recourse was to complain to the audiencia of Santo 
Domingo. It appears that negroes joined in the revolt. 
The absence of Vasco Porcallo and of others of his sort 
who had gone with de Soto encouraged the Cubenos 
of the center of the island to rise. Guzman informed the 
crown that dread of that one man had held them under 
and in removing him de Soto had done the country 
serious damage. The former governor drew a picture 
of the situation which was black indeed, declaring that 
two-thirds of the island were unpopulated and most of 
the central settlements "as good as burned." Two 
natives in arms, he said, were enough to massacre all 
the Spaniards who were left! The colonists desired 
permission to continue to tax themselves for campaign 
funds and authority to compel vecinos to lend Cubenos 
and negroes to fight whenever necessary. 

Hurtado, who appears stalking through these years 
with two armed negroes as bodyguard, — Castro and 
Guzman (still a "servant of the crown" because he re- 
tained the office of veedor of the fundicion) , others they 
involved and Bishop Sarmiento continued to revolve 
in Santiago's atmosphere of disturbance on which these 
rare old belligerents appear to have thrived. Sarmiento, 
who, Hurtado declared, had "arrived raging," adding 
that all priests on passing west of Gomera dropped 
their good character into the seas there and became 
devils a month after landing in Cuba, was Ramirez's 
successor indeed and espoused his quarrels; so also he 
was much concerned as to his tithes and he wanted them 
paid in hard money rather than in kind. Being in- 
quisitor, Hurtado said, he was master of the colony, in- 
cluding the women. He was at odds with the monks 



176 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

of the Franciscan monastery which, suggested by 1527, 
had since 1530 existed precariously in Santiago, — a 
bohio (hut) now inhabited by young friars whose con- 
duct scandalized the community, now abandoned al- 
together, and now resumed, the crown contributing 
(1536) toward the erection of a more substantial edifice. 
The alcalde mayor, Bartolome Ortiz, called upon to 
settle old feuds was swamped in difficulties. He and 
the settlers in their warring parties fell out concerning 
the fort which de Soto had begun to guard the landing 
place, if that earthwork was pretentious enough to be 
considered a fort. They quarrelled over its site and 
construction. Even before de Soto arrived the city 
council had begged the crown for skilled men to build 
it and for artillery. Surely, the cabildo exclaimed, 
voicing the city's real fear, God would not let His 
church there be burned with the stone houses that had 
cost so much (and so many cedulas!) to build which if 
destroyed would not be reerected in a very long time 
indeed ! It was understood that Havana was to have a 
fort of masonry; Santiago asked that hers be built as 
durably, since the settlement of Santiago, its council 
added, with a pride which had as yet no appreciation 
that the star of empire was passing west, — Santiago 
was "what is to last in this island." Work on the fort 
stopped for lack of funds (perhaps before it began) , and 
not until the audiencia at Santo Domingo authorized 
expenditure of money on it was it finished in February 
of 1544. News of the sack of Santa Marta and of Car- 
tagena by the French stimulated the people of Santiago 
to take renewed interest in the matter. Though the 
crown seems to have anticipated that the fort would be 
built at the harbor's mouth I am under the impression 



EBB TIDE —ORTIZ, DE AVILA, CHAVES (1538-1550) 177 

that what was constructed was a bulwark at the landing, 
in which artillery was duly placed. 

Ortiz was an infirm old man. His salary of 200 pesos 
a year was inadequate remuneration for what he en- 
dured in Santiago, between the fighting factions which 
had nothing in common save their animosity to him. 
Ortiz earnestly desired to resign and presently (1542) 
with the crown's permission he withdrew to Spain. 

On August 14th, 1543, the crown appointed Lie. 
Juanes de Avila to be governor of Cuba, nothing what- 
soever having been heard from de Soto in Florida for 
three years. Juanes de Avila was a young man, — 
under thirty. I have seen no documents to explain his 
selection. He was slow to go to his post and was at one 
time bidden to return his commission, Seville being 
instructed not to let him depart. Whether he had 
previous history, or connections of note, or not, he was, 
nevertheless, a governor royally appointed, and when 
eventually he came, Cuba, which had resented being 
administered by a mere alcalde mayor, thanked the 
king for him: "We had ceased to hope for such succor, 
believing that your majesty had forgotten this, your 
island." 

De Avila arrived at Santiago on February 2, 1544. A 
storm holding his ship off port, he came ashore in a 
jollyboat lest he be carried on to an easier landing in 
Mexico. He passed the population in review and 
counted, he says, 200 Christians, foot and horse. He at 
once took de Soto's residencia, and those of his sub- 
ordinate officials. This investigation was little more 
than a formality. 

De Avila took up his residence with Dona Guiomar 
de Guzman. Dofia Guiomar was over fifty years of age. 



178 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

She was that widow whom Pedro de Paz, former 
accountant, had left well off in encomiendas and other 
property. She had daughters and a son, — Pedro de 
Paz, 2nd, who seems to have been a rake of a Salamanca 
student, — and with him especially she became involved 
in law suits concerning partition of the estate. Al- 
though there is evidence that in Spain before 1540 
Dona Guiomar married Sebastian del Oyo Villota, vecino 
of Seville, it seems to have been rather as a buxom 
widow that, in the summer of 1541, she entertained the 
Admiral Luis de Colon at her house. The admiral was 
flat broke and ill to boot and possibly was willing to 
share in any material profit Dofia Guiomar may have 
been able to make out of having so influential a guest in 
her house and under her domination. Contemporary 
gossip ran that she was de Avila's mistress before the 
young governor made her his wife. He had previously 
expressed a willingness to espouse any one of half a 
dozen young ladies in La Espanola, who, unfortunately 
for him, preferred sugar planters there or in default of 
these then nobles of Spain to governors of Cuba. "He 
was as blind in his own business," Castro exclaimed, 
in commenting upon his wedding to the widow, "as he 
has been to the interests of everybody except Dona 
Guiomar." 

The crown was again endeavoring to free the Cu- 
befios from the repartimiento system. A cedula arrived 
in Santiago forbidding the use of natives in mining; 
by this time they were employed in little else. The 
local authorities failed to have it cried, and there- 
fore it was not enforced. Castro and Agramonte were 
especially blamed for this. Called to account in the 
matter these authorities protested that to publish and 



EBB TIDE— ORTIZ, DE AVILA, CHAVES (1538-1550) 179 

make effective that order was to ruin the island utterly. 
Bishop Sarmiento had been made protector of the 
Indians : the city council had protested his appointment, 
violent scenes ensued, — an armed conflict in the plaza, — 
and there is no evidence that the natives benefited. 
The number of those in the "experiment" village had 
dwindled to ten, in the control of a vecino who hired 
them out; they were said to have earned sixty pesos a 
year out of which that vecino paid their poll tax of three 
pesos per capita and pocketed the other half of the sixty. 
More cedulas were emitted, — that the Cubefios be well 
treated and. naborias allowed liberty to choose whom 
they would serve. The crown's desire to give the na- 
tives liberty was overruled in the council for the Indies 
(April 20, 1543) and accepting a majority report in the 
matter the king agreed "to send a governor to act with 
the church and report on the manner of granting liberty 
judiciously, to the Indians' advantage." Juanes de 
Avila was accordingly equipped with "judicious" 
cedulas: Indian slaves taken by force elsewhere and sold 
in Cuba were to be returned to their native habitats; 
to hold or to import such slaves was made illegal, 
governor and bishop were once more declared in- 
eligible to hold encomendados (the prohibition included 
minor secular and ecclesiastical functionaries and 
religious communities); individual colonists were not 
to be deprived of their encomiendas but these ceased 
to be heritable; Cubefios held by negligent and un- 
worthy Spaniards were to be released from such service 
at once; natives were not to be forced to do work they 
did not choose to do, — except in case of necessity and 
then for a proper wage! De Avila had these provisions 
cried and a storm of protest broke. Procuradores, 



180 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

councils, alcaldes, — and doubtless also his wife who held 
large encomiendas, — pleaded with the governor to 
suspend execution of these orders, at least until the end 
of the year 1544, which would give them time to appeal. 
De Avila acceded, later claiming in his defence that he 
had the audiencia's authority to delay; but that he 
failed to free the natives was held as a heavy count 
against him when his administration was investigated. 
His brother, Alonso de Avila was empowered (March 25, 
1544) by the procuradores of the colony to enter its 
protests at court; it may be that other advocates, too, 
were sent. 

From Santiago the governor presently set out for a 
tour of inspection of the island with Havana as his 
ultimate destination. Declaring that presence of 
French corsairs on the seas made it necessary for him 
to remain to defend that port and its shipping, he had a 
house built for himself on ground the city ceded for the 
purpose and with materials some said the residents 
of Havana contributed under compulsion, — wherefore 
they called the governor's residence "the house of fear." 
When the danger from the French passed, de Avila said, 
he returned to Santiago. 

Documents I have seen give the impression that de 
Avila was as worthless a governor as the island ever 
drew to its unhappy lot. He favored his wife, engaged 
in trade himself and created monopolies for his own 
benefit, coerced the municipal councils, intimidated the 
people, and accepted bribes. His ill fame was common 
gossip in La Espanola and the audiencia sent Lie. 
Estevez as juez de comision to investigate into his con- 
duct in office. Meanwhile, the crown, informed of his 
excesses, on October 5th, 1545, commissioned Lie. 



EBB TIDE —ORTIZ, DE AVILA, CHAVES (1538-1550) 181 

Antonio Chaves to succeed him as governor. Chaves' 
appointment was for four years at 1000 ducats a year 
salary. 

He arrived in Santiago on June 4, 1546, took office 
next day and proceeded to put de Avila through a reg- 
ular residencia regardless of Estevez's work, suspecting 
Estevez, possibly, of partiality toward de Avila. A 
glance into the half dozen or so great volumes of legal 
documents accumulated in the course of these two 
investigations shows the governor's house raided, Dona 
Guiomar resisting; a slave woman threatened with 
torture (in the presence of Chaves himself) to compel 
her to disclose where de Avila and his wife hid their 
treasures, the dirt floor of a country house dug up to 
discover bars of gold there, the former governor a 
prisoner and chained to the stocks where slaves were 
held, next seeking sanctuary in the Franciscan mon- 
astery, from there fleeing to the woods where he was 
ingloriously captured and, finally, sailing away to 
Spain accompanied by the evidence for and against 
him, there to face the council for the Indies. For- 
tunately, he was also accompanied by a box of treas- 
ure; it lightened judgment on him. Dofia Guiomar, 
fond spouse that she may have been, now came for- 
ward to fight off fines imposed on Juanes by claiming 
that all the property in sight was hers, not de Avila's. 
The legal battles they waged lasted for years; finally, 
however, documents show de Avila freed from jail and, 
no longer banished from the Indies as he was among 
first sentences passed on him, he returned with his 
wife and a retinue of fifteen servants to prosecute as a 
trader the business between Cuba and the continent 
in which the doughty widow Guiomar was long and 



182 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

profitably engaged. Before 1563 Juanes had died 
possibly in Jamaica. 

When Chaves took office even the natives were said 
to rejoice in the relief from de Avila. It does not ap- 
pear that they had good cause, for Chaves deplored 
the royal cedula prohibiting the employment of Cubenos 
in mining, declared that it and discord among the 
leading colonists as result of which traders suffered 
and therefore avoided the island, were chief causes of 
the colony's deplorable condition, and, protesting that 
he intended to enforce it, Chaves " suspended the 
effect" of the order and urged the crown to revoke it, 
lest the island be depopulated "and the devil possess 
it again." The king's answer was a reprimand, and 
on September 27, 1547, Chaves assured him that his 
command was obeyed; but he asked that exemption 
be made of Puerto Principe and Sancti Spiritus, and 
of Trinidad which he had reestablished, because, he 
explained, they had no agricultural resources and this 
prohibition against employing the Cubenos in mining 
meant their obliteration. Chaves was not disposed to 
grant the natives liberty; they were lacking, he said, 
in knowledge of Christian doctrine and he argued that 
temporal freedom meant spiritual damnation for them. 
He therefore, he reported, gave them freedom in name 
only, made their obligations domestic service solely, 
and forbade contracts and transfers. He asked the 
crown's approval of this modification of the royal com- 
mand, and received only censure. It was also charged 
against him that he did not enforce cedulas to prohibit 
traffic in Indian slaves. 

Guzman was long since dead (1539) and Castro fol- 
lowed him in 1547: nevertheless peace by no means 



EBB TIDE— ORTIZ, DE AVILA, CHAVES (1538-1550) 183 

prevailed in Santiago, for Hurtado was still there, — 
still ''bestirring himself on behalf of the king's patri- 
mony," — and it was on his accusations that Chaves 
mistreated settlers by word and deed, defamed and 
solicited their women, attended to his own private 
business in preference to the colony's, permitted his 
under-officials to overcharge, and shielded delinquents 
from justice, that the audiencia of Santo Domingo on 
January 16, 1549, commissioned Captain Geronimo de 
Aguayo(s) juez pezquisidor to make a secret investiga- 
tion into the governor's conduct. Hurtado undertook 
to pay this judge's salary. On April 8th following 
Captain Aguayo presented himself in Santiago. Chaves 
was in Havana. By July Aguayo had returned to 
Santo Domingo with a list of 300 charges against the 
governor. That court was then expecting Chaves' 
successor — Dr. Gonzalo Perez de Angulo — to arrive 
momentarily, and when he passed through Santo 
Domingo the results of Aguayo's work were delivered 
to him. Chaves declared that Aguayo was a nephew 
of Lie. Grajeda of the audiencia who merely needed 
the salary which he drew as juez pezquisidor, and that 
since he had hopes of obtaining the governorship for 
himself he exerted every effort to prove Chaves as 
black as his worst enemies painted him. 

Dr. Angulo, appointed September 1, 1548, arrived in 
Santiago on November 4, 1549, and accepted Aguayo's 
work, or so Chaves alleged, as the basis of the resi- 
dencia he took. On July 1, 1550, he sent Chaves 
a prisoner to Spain accused of a multitude of petty 
misdemeanors: that he haled a priest who had been 
disrespectful to him, through the streets of town half- 
dressed at night, that he failed to pay for a dose of 



184 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

zarzaprilla at the apothecary's, that he called Hurtado's 
nephew a Jew, — a libel that gentleman took long dep- 
ositions to prove false! He was said to have called 
the colonists conspirators and to have declared that 
rebellion such as the Lie. Gasca was then smothering 
in Peru was likely to break out in Cuba: in his defence 
Chaves asserted that he had grounds for making such 
remarks. "I was right," he stoutly maintained, "to 
reprove such leagues as are common in Indies against 
judges who are unpopular because they will not do 
as the provincials desire." Of serious charges of failure 
to enforce cedulas concerning natives, the council for 
the Indies absolved Chaves on the ground that execu- 
tion of these had been ordered suspended: actually, it 
would seem that between cedulas to give them liberty, 
governors' suspension of these, the secreting of some 
orders and the audiencia's interference with others, 
the whole matter was a muddle which justified, for 
instance, Castro's assertion that nobody knew what 
the law was. 

Nevertheless, Chaves was long held in prison, ac- 
tually in chains. In view of the comparative triviality 
of the counts against him, the only explanation is that 
he had not during his administration accumulated the 
means wherewith to purchase lenient if not favorable 
consideration of it! He was early deserted by his 
lawyer and thereafter conducted his own defence and 
acted as his own clerk. Not until June, 1552, had he 
worried the sentences against him down to a fine of 
104,000 maravedis payable in a year. 

Who reads the petitions, one after another, which 
Chaves submitted asking release from confinement, if 
only for a few days because he was ill, and who reads 



EBB TIDE,— ORTIZ, DE AVILA, CHAVES (1538-1550) 185 

his pleas that he be freed to earn in Cuba or in Peru the 
wherewithal to settle the account against him, may 
picture him as the personification of the humiliation 
to which passing events had reduced the island of Cuba! 
One wonders that there were candidates willing to ac- 
cept a governorship certain to involve the incumbent 
in bitter strife with a disobedient community and likely 
to entail an aftermath of imprisonment as long as 
the administration itself, costly, doubtless, to an equiv- 
alent at least of the legitimate profits the appointment 
carried. 

Immediately on arriving in Cuba Governor Angulo 
proclaimed the " entire liberty" of the Cubenos. In- 
asmuch as the settlers had purchased what natives of 
the continent and of other islands they held as slaves, 
had paid duty on them and otherwise fulfilled all re- 
quirements of lawful acquisition and ownership, Angulo 
did not at the same time publish another cedula he had 
declaring these slaves, also, free. On the contrary, 
he suspended it and allowed the colonists to send Juan 
de Agramonte to court to protest against the injustice 
of it. This done, early in July, 1550, — as soon as he had 
settled with his predecessor Chaves, — Doctor Angulo 
betook himself to Havana. 

From this time forward the natives cut little figure 
in the history of the island, although I have seen men- 
tion of an uprising in Angulo's time. Angulo's pro- 
nouncement that they were free seems to have had effect : 
in 1556 his successor, travelling through the country, said 
he found the Cubenos living wretchedly, abandoned to 
the wilderness. He estimated their number then and 
a little later to be not as many as two thousand, in- 
cluding perhaps two hundred Indians who were not 



186 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

native born, but these had become so identified with 
the Cubenos through intermarriage that to send them 
back as the king desired to the regions whence they 
came would have been no kindness; the governor there- 
fore ventured to disobey explicit instructions to do 
so, and was not rebuked. He ordered the natives to 
establish themselves in villages near the Spaniards' 
settlements, and so, he said, they did, willingly and 
quickly. I have seen no documents giving details of 
this matter. Over such villages (like Guanabacoa, 
near Havana, and El Caney near Santiago, and Trini- 
dad itself) alguaciles named by royal appointment 
were placed in control; these officers were themselves 
Indians. It is possible that these villages were in some 
instances compelled "for the love of God" to support 
certain old and impecunious conquistadores for whom 
no other pension was available. 

Cubenos came to own houses, crops and herds. They 
sold hides and provisions to passing ships. They en- 
gaged in trade with other colonies. The church, to be 
sure, profited by them under guise of administering to 
the spiritual welfare of their communities; similarly, 
ordinances supposedly framed to shield them against 
impositions in business, and to safeguard their morals 
(for instance by forbidding unrestricted sale of wine 
among them), were doubtless merely means of ex- 
ploitation. Nevertheless, though they may have found 
that Juan de Rojas had an unfair monopoly of trade in 
Havana; and though the governor may have allowed 
Juan de Ynestrosa to compel them to bring up beef 
cattle for his meat market, they were withal no greater 
sufferers from such favoritism than Spaniards, and 
their complaints were of as much avail as any Chris- 



EBB TIDE —ORTIZ, DE AVILA, CHAVES (1538-1550) 187 

tians'. The governor at least received their delega- 
tions, and the crown heard their complaints. 

Some, however, refused to surrender to civilization. 
There were always red men among the outlaws who 
never came in from the inaccessible localities, especially, 
it would seem, about Puerto Principe and in the eastern 
end of the island, for it was in response to a petition 
from Santiago, Bayamo and Puerto Principe that in 
1563 the crown consented to have them brought in by 
force of arms, the slaves among them to be punished 
with all the rigor of the law and the Cubenos to be 
taught the Catholic religion. 

If any campaign was undertaken in consequence of 
this cedula it cannot have been entirely successful, for 
late in 1575 or early in 1576 Captain Cristobal de Soto 
Longo discovered a village of Cubenos, toward the south 
coast some forty miles from Havana, which had been 
theretofore entirely unknown to Spaniards. With the 
governor's consent he mustered and equipped a com- 
pany of thirty or forty men and took this village of 
macuriges or macunos Indians, without bloodshed. 
He brought its chiefs before the governor to swear 
allegiance to Spain. They explained that the band, 
some sixty in number, was the offspring of two men 
and two women. The notary who talked with them 
in their own tongue testified that they said they were 
willing to come into a town, there to reside near the 
Spaniards. Although they are said to have selected 
the site for this village, there is reason to suppose 
that they were not unguided in the matter, for the 
place chosen seems to have been near enough to one 
of de Soto's ranches to make them available as labor. 
Captain Cristobal Soto Longo petitioned the king to 



188 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

commend them to him and both the governor and the 
town council recommended him to royal favor for the 
service rendered in " pacifying" this native village. 
The king thanked him for bringing into his allegiance 
its inhabitants, "who were wandering in the wilderness 
without the light of the faith," but as to the encomienda, 
he hesitated. The macuriges deserted the new village 
shortly, but their patriarchal leader having died in the 
wilds to which they returned, fifty-one of them came 
back again and found places in Guanabacoa where, 
they were assured, they need serve nobody and pay no 
tribute. They were given a hundred yards of cloth 
to make themselves clothing and they were commended 
to the spiritual care of the village priest. 

Their absorption into Guanabacoa would seem to 
end the tragedy of the Cubefio. He ceased to exist, 
except in a few Cubans, as a prototype of whom I 
might mention Captain Juan Ferrer de Vargas, who 
came up to Havana from Bayamo. Gossips said he 
was fetched to teach Governor Carreno's son the fine 
art of dancing at which perhaps it was his native blood 
which made him expert. His sister was Governor 
Montalvo's wife. Ferrer de Vargas was placed in 
command of Havana's fort. When jealousy objected 
that he was unfit for the honor because he was the son 
of a slave, the governor protested that his mother was 
a Cubena and therefore a free woman by the king of 
Spain's repeated pronouncements, and that Ferrer de 
Vargas was a brave soldier with an honorable record 
in Spain as well as in Cuba, and this was indeed the 
fact. For mixed blood outside his own family, however, 
Governor Montalvo had less respect: when the Recio 
family waxed powerful he was not averse to referring 



EBB TIDE —ORTIZ, DE AVILA, CHAVES (1538-1550) 189 

slightingly to Juan Recio as a mestizo. Indian blood 
seems to have been considered a social detriment to 
those tinged by it; though it made their feet nimble 
in the dance it does not nevertheless appear to have at 
all detracted from their valor in the field of battle or 
from their astuteness in the no less heroic field of 
business. 



CHAPTER XII 

SOCIAL, AGRICULTURAL, INDUSTRIAL, AND COMMERCIAL 
DEVELOPMENT (TO 1550) 

Bien me ha parecido . . . que los espanoles y naturales de 
esa tierra se den a la cultivar y sembrar en ella . . . y que haya 
en esa dicha tierra oficiales en todo lo mecanico. — The Crown. 
A de I., 87, 6, 1, III., CIVIII. 

As has been shown, from the year 1518 onward dis- 
covery and conquest and colonization tended steadily 
to draw population out of Cuba : to the west to Mexico 
and to Central America; then to the south beyond the 
isthmus to the most amazing kingdom of Peru; and 
now north, to Florida, as the Spaniards designated a 
continent of which nothing was known and everything 
anticipated. " Friends of change and novelty," the 
colony's settlers departed if they could, "leaving what 
they surely possessed and knew to go after untried 
uncertainties." This, naturally, retarded economic 
development. 

Santiago, capital of the colony, was described in de 
Soto's time as a village of some twenty house-holders, 
twelve of them merchants. De Avila found "the 
Christians" to number 200 when he reviewed them on 
his arrival. The only public improvement the city 
boasted seems to have been a wharf beside which for 
its protection a bulwark was built and artillery planted. 
Although the crown appropriated funds to erect it of 
masonry, the casa de fundicion seems still to have been 

190 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 191 

the heretic Escalante's houses on which some money 
was spent to prevent them from falling in. What 
income the city had was from a tax on merchandise 
crossing the wharf, to which was now added that por- 
tion of penas de camara (fines) which it was authorized to 
expend. This money appears to have gone to pay 
procuradores and to fight Cubenos. Santiago had been 
more than once visited by fire. One conflagration de- 
stroyed the town hall and the original church; circa 1530 
rebuilding of the latter began, of masonry and wood, 
the crown contributing toward the cost. The hospital 
and its chapel were bohios. So, too, had the Franciscan 
monastery and its hermitage been (1532), although the 
crown gave toward building the convent of stone as it 
gave toward erection of the cathedral. Many cedulas 
had been issued requiring encomenderos to build ma- 
sonry houses in the towns, — substantial dwellings 
which should be safe against fire and against rebel na- 
tives and blacks, — yet nowhere save at Santiago where 
twelve or thirteen were begun perhaps by 1536 do docu- 
ments indicate that stone buildings existed. Protests 
voiced there and from other settlements, — that ma- 
terials and laborers were not available and that en- 
comenderos would sooner surrender their natives than 
undergo the expense of complying, — suggest, however, 
that now serious attempts were made to enforce the 
law. In Santiago Guzman (1539) owned two masonry 
houses, in one of which he dwelt, wishing to God, he said, 
that he had contented himself with a hut, so fast on 
the road to perdition was the colony then travelling. 

All the settlements shared in the general misery. 
Manuel de Rojas inspected the island in 1534. In order 
not to lose his pay Bishop Sarmiento visited the churches 



192 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

of his diocese, travelling from Santiago to Havana 
whence he left for Spain in 1544. Governors de Avila, 
Chaves and Angulo called from settlement to settle- 
ment in their turn, and all left record of what they saw. 

Baracoa, the oldest, was perhaps the most wretched 
of the seven towns Velazquez had founded. Though 
honored with the official title of city, it was "not even 
the shadow of a city nor yet of a small village." The 
eligible citizens were barely enough when Rojas was 
governor to fill the offices of alcaldes and regidores. 
Mustering all resources the place could barely support 
a cura. The causes of Baracoa's decay were then given 
as the pestilence which diminished the native popula- 
tion and the monopoly by non-resident encomenderos 
of those Cubefios who survived. After attempts at 
rebellion there which Rojas smothered, Baracoa seems 
almost to have ceased to exist; it was burned by French 
corsairs but presently it reappears, as headquarters for 
smugglers, — lawless friars who alone could be persuaded 
to be pastors to its sparse flock being picturesque active 
agents in this illegal business. 

Bayamo became dissatisfied with its original location 
and moved, perhaps to its present site. In 1544 Bishop 
Sarmiento found a church, recently rebuilt there at an 
expenditure of 300 pesos, and a population of thirty 
Spaniards " married and about to marry," i. e., heads 
of families, and 400 Indians little inclined to the Cath- 
olic faith and careless as to whether they wore clothes 
or not, and some 200 negroes. Cattle raising was the 
leading industry, and it prospered especially until 
Mexico, a good customer for Cuban live stock, began 
to supply her own demand. 

Trinidad had quarreled with its site, condemning its 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 193 

port as poor and in ill-repute because of wrecks there. 
Guzman, Vadillo and Rojas in turn had dealt with the 
desire of its settlers to depart, — to Sancti Spiritus, to a 
pleasant place on the banks of the Arimao, to Peru or 
to the port of Matanzas to which harbor some did be- 
take themselves with Vadillo's permission. In 1544 
not a Spaniard remained at Trinidad, where, however, 
some Cubenos later appear supporting themselves by 
raising crops and exporting their surplus to Tierra 
Firme. 

Sancti Spiritus in 1544 had a population of 18 vecinos, 
58 naborias encomendadas, 14 negro and 50 Indian 
slaves. Rojas had opened a road from this settlement 
to the port of Puerto del Principe (presumably Nuevi- 
tas) to give egress to its products. 

Puerto Principe, situated at this time on the north 
shore or near it, felt an impetus toward prosperity in its 
proximity to the north-coast trade route. In 1544 its 
population was 14 vecinos, 235 natives encomendados 
and 160 slaves who were blacks and Yucatan Indians. 
The building of a church had been begun with which 
Vasco Porcallo was helping. 

Porcallo, according to Bishop Sarmiento, "first citi- 
zen of the island by right of lineage and wealth, . . . 
generous and spirited," did much to sustain the cities 
of Puerto Principe, where he was accustomed to spend 
part of each year, and Sancti Spiritus. His seat was at 
Sabana, a seaport fifty leagues away the identity of 
which I have not yet been able to establish to my own 
satisfaction, where he lorded it over a settlement of 
his own, of twenty huts, ten Spaniards (not including 
another ten who constituted his personal retinue), 80 
natives and 120 negro slaves. Sabana, or "el cayo" 



194 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

as it is more frequently called, came with passing years 
to have a municipal organization of its own. 

The population of Havana in 1544 was 40 vecinos, 
120 Cubefios (naborias) and 200 black and Indian 
slaves. Or, as nearly as I can estimate it, the total 
population of Cuba at the middle of the sixteenth cen- 
tury was approximately 322 Spaniards (house-holders), 
say 1000 Cubefios, and perhaps 800 black and Indian 
slaves. I do not believe these figures to be accurate in 
the sense in which population is reckoned nowadays. 
Each house-holder (vecino), for instance, represented a 
more or less numerous family, and apparently no ac- 
counting was taken of transients, not even of traders 
regularly engaged in business to and from the island 
whose connection with the colony was more or less per- 
manent. Therefore it is hardly safe to infer that the 
natives at this time (circa 1550) outnumbered the 
Caucasians three to one and that the slaves outnum- 
bered their masters two to one. 

Neither were the whites all Spaniards. Not only 
were there Germans at least in transit through Cuba 
(welcome everywhere because of their skill as artificers), 
but also Italians, — presently even among the soldiery on 
which the Spaniards relied for defence; other national- 
ities that flourished south of the Mediterranean were 
represented too, at least among the itinerant merchant- 
class. Portuguese, who appeared especially after 1528, 
were the agriculturists; industrious, they prospered and 
proved conducive to the prosperity of others about 
them. In 1531 at the request of the people of Cuba, 
because larger population of the island was desirable, 
the crown ordered that for six years married Portuguese 
be admitted to the colony on taking oath of allegiance 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 195 

to Spain. Such immigrants were to be given a cabal- 
leria of land as a homestead. In 1536 it was ordered 
that any married Portuguese accompanied by his wife 
be let to go freely to the Indies. Certainly, Portuguese 
came into Cuba, cultivated its lands, and thrived. 
Later, their number caused alarm; their very virtues, — 
admirable qualities of intelligent laborious tillers of the 
soil, — constituted them a menace to Spaniards who 
lacked these characteristics. 

To keep settlers in the island of Cuba the crown took 
every measure the statesmanship of the time could 
devise. Cedulas were issued prohibiting them on pen- 
alty of death and confiscation of goods from leaving 
the country without permission of local authority; even 
traders (1528) were under bond to return from their 
voyages. Every endeavor was exerted to augment the 
legitimate white population by making unmarried men 
ineligible to be encomenderos, by declaring encomiendas 
to be heritable property, by discouraging concubinage, 
and by compelling men married in Spain to fetch their 
wives to the island where Cubenas naborias had not in- 
frequently supplanted them. Many unions between 
Spaniards and Cubenas were legal and there is evidence 
that native wives were by no means persistent savages. 
Evidently there was in the colony a considerable num- 
ber of illegitimate children, for on Hurtado's suggestion 
the crown undertook to turn an honest penny by legiti- 
mizing them for a price, that they might become their 
fathers' heirs as these desired them to be. 

Like a tragic background behind these amenable 
women among the aborigines fancy pictures the irrec- 
oncilables, — still singing, dancing (as late as de Soto's 
time), poisoning and hanging themselves "by tens," 



196 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

starving in the mines, plotting rebellion during the 
"dead season" when the mines closed and they were 
turned out to find themselves, and now carrying their 
plots into effect with stolen steel and blazing torch. 
Savager than they, beside them stand the hozal blacks 
newly brought out of Africa. 

African slave trade to the Indies was established be- 
fore the conquest of Cuba began. Blacks had arrived 
among other chattels of incoming settlers as early at 
least as 1513 when Amador de Lares got license to 
import four. Velazquez seems to have wished to bar 
blacks from Cuba; at one time he refused to admit them 
insisting that he had no authority to do so, and he pro- 
tested that they were undesirable. I believe he feared 
them as did for instance Fray Bernaldino de Man- 
canedo who in recommending at that early date that 
blacks be supplied to the Indies excepted Cuba because 
there were too many natives there, — i. e., to add blacks 
to the red population was to endanger the safety of the 
white. 

Authority previously granted under which the 
African slave trade with Indies was flourishing, was 
rescinded on September 23, 1516; on that date the 
crown took action to bring the business under its 
direct control, on the ground that already blacks and 
Indians had come to constitute a real menace to white 
supremacy in the New World. It was provided that 
thereafter no Africans might be admitted into Cuba 
(specifically included in the regulation) except when 
accompanied by special royal permit. The sale of such 
permits at a good stiff price per "piece" became an 
interesting source of revenue to the crown. 

The policy of controlling the slave trade to Indies by 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 197 

letting it out under contract was soon inaugurated and 
in provisions of these contracts Cuba was not neg- 
lected. By 1518 the settlers in Cuba expressed the 
opinion that every white resident should have the right 
to import six black slaves, three males and three fe- 
males, "to remedy the matter of population." The 
crown suspected that under one concession requiring 
delivery in Cuba of 700 slaves, even more than the 
grand total which the agreement allowed were sent to 
the Indies and when Cuba asked another thousand on 
plea that the as yet non-existent sugar industry needed 
them, the crown authorized the entrance of 300 only 
(1526). Again in 1530 it was a question if Cuba was 
getting the 400 head which the German concessionaries 
were due to supply. Even if big contracts with whole- 
sale traders were not always carried out, there is 
nevertheless evidence enough in the countless licenses 
issued to individuals to take with them to Cuba from 
one to a dozen blacks for their personal service to war- 
rant me in my own conviction that immigration to 
Cuba was from a very early date blacker than it was 
white. In the 1530's the number of negroes in Cuba 
was estimated at 500 and again at 1000, market value 
65 to 70 pesos the head. 

The first negro uprising occurred in 1533 at the 
Jobabo mines where the four blacks guilty of it paid for 
their temerity with their lives. Slave owners contrib- 
uted a ducat or a half peso per head of slaves they owned 
into a fund employed to hunt down runaways; later, 
importers were made to pay this tax, and the system 
continued intermittently to the end of the century at 
least. When Governor Rojas forbade that negro 
slaves be punished " excessively save when they needed 



198 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

it, except by civil authorities," giving as his reason 
that cruelty led to revolt, slave owners protested to the 
crown that for safety's sake they must be permitted to 
inspire obedience through terror, and asked that negroes 
be forbidden to carry knives longer than "a palm's 
length," or to travel in parties. 

After 1527 it was required that half the negro slaves 
imported into the Indies should be females and mar- 
riage "by law and blessing" between blacks was made 
legal, — a privilege sometimes made obligatory as in 
1527, when a short period was set within which black 
slaves must marry. Their owners protested that a 
sufficient number of black females was not available, 
and got the time limit extended. This requirement was 
a measure intended to encourage good steady work and 
to prevent servile rebellions by making the negroes 
more contented with their misery, so shared. Owners 
had no objection to a large proportion, say one-third, 
of their slaves being females; one commenting upon the 
matter remarks with complacency that negroes thrived 
in Cuba, multiplying with a fecundity which made 
their purchase a good investment. Early, too (1526), 
the crown invited the colonists to consider ways and 
means to permit faithful slaves to buy their liberty; a 
confidential report on the point was requested. By the 
end of the century "free blacks" were an appreciable 
element in the population. 

It is perhaps not out of place to call attention here 
to the fact that to the Spaniard his black slave was 
merely his social and political inferior; he never enter- 
tained, for instance, any notion that the negro was a 
soul-less son of Cain condemned to servitude by divine 
wrath. Far from it, he recognized the black's equality 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 199 

with him before the altar of the Catholic church, and 
insisted upon the negro's taking advantage of it no 
matter how much the slave would have preferred to 
stay at home on Sundays and feast-days working his 
garden plot that he might have enough to eat. Cer- 
tainly the negro had a soul and his master did not 
propose to be blamed for loss of it by permitting him 
to live in sin, either of concubinage or of absence from 
mass! When he became free, and even before he be- 
came free the slave had rights before the law. This 
attitude of mind of the Spaniard,— so very different 
indeed from that of the slave-holding North Amer- 
ican, — partly explains the facility with which he 
mingled his "pure, clean" white blood with black so 
begetting a mulatto population to be reckoned with 
later; this element does not attain to any importance 
in the period of Cuban history which this work covers. 
Further, in this connection it is not to be forgotten 
that the Spaniard himself had not emerged entirely 
uncolored from beneath wave after wave of Afro- 
Semitic invasion that swept the peninsula. It may 
not be quite true that "Africa begins at the Pyrenees," 
but certainly to Africa sunny Andalusia owes her very 
charm: the black eyes and hair of her daughters, her 
hilarious colorings, her devotion to dancing, her music, 
her passionate demand for gaudy display, and because 
of Seville's preeminence in American trade Andalusia in- 
fluenced Cuba. All these effects of the racial commin- 
gling which there long antedated the discovery of Cuba, 
were brought to Cuba in her whitest colonists; and when 
I endeavor to determine effects certainly due to the 
later intermingling of bloods in the island, I am at a 
loss to name any except the strengthening of existing 



200 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

characteristics, unless, perhaps, one may trace to the 
aboriginal Cubeno (who gesticulated) the Cuban's in- 
dulgence in gesture when he talks. Truly, I believe that 
peculiarity may be the one surviving aboriginal trait. 

Cuba early complained of a hampering lack of labor. 
When, circa 1530, the crown gave recurrent indications 
of an irradicable determination to liberate the Cubefios, 
and especially when importation of Indian slaves was 
prohibited, the easiest solution of the difficulties pre- 
sented was that which even the pious las Casas with all 
his humane zeal did not hesitate to recommend: a 
change in the color of the victim! More black slaves 
to replace the red! No question of the propriety of 
black or white slavery seems to have troubled the mind 
of Charles V. or those of his colonists in Cuba. Logically 
not,— even the problem of the Cubefios and aborig- 
ines of other parts was political, not moral: the ques- 
tion there involved was not the propriety of servitude in 
general, but of title to the particular parcel of " pieces " 
which the natives of the Americas constituted. The 
archbishop of Santo Domingo considered black slaves 
necessary to Cuba and advised that their importation 
into the island be encouraged. The council for the 
Indies recommended (1536) that the crown " throw 
wide the door" to trade in slaves, relieving it of all 
requirements save payment of duties on the goods. 
Bishop Ramirez informed the crown that the number 
of encomendados was diminishing under the harsh treat- 
ment and hard labor the repartimiento system inflicted 
on them, a matter which he lamented less for the 
natives' sake than on account of the Spanish settlers 
who he said would have no means of support when 
there were no Indians, unless prior to "inaugurating" 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 201 

the " innovation" of liberating the Cubenos, on which 
Charles was determined, the crown should invest a year 
or two's income from the island in black slaves to be 
distributed among the settlers that they might not so 
severely miss their encomiendas if these were freed. 

Accordingly the crown ordered that the royal rev- 
enues from the whole country for the year 1531 be set 
aside to be invested in black slaves to be distributed 
among responsible settlers who should obligate them- 
selves to pay for the same in two years' time. The 
bishop was advised that if he thought announcement of 
the real reason for this, i. e., the crown's determination 
to free the Cubenos, would redound to their detriment, 
that is, that the Spaniards would work them to death 
in the last period of their mastery, then he need not 
advertise this reason but as explanation of the measure 
give sickness among the natives (the pestilence of 
1528-30) and the lack of black slaves, i. e., a general 
shortage of labor. The colony expressed very great 
appreciation of the crown's generosity. Its lack of 
definite provisions for the expenditure of the 7000 pesos 
which were duly collected into the officials' three-keyed 
box was not at the time observed nor ever understood 
generally, but documents show the truth to be that the 
crown had no intention of actually expending that 
money in blacks until the definite freeing of the Cubenos 
made it necessary. Presently plans were drawn for its 
expenditure and forwarded to the crown: it was the 
general opinion that the money should be sent to 
Seville or to Lisbon to buy the blacks inasmuch as no 
such number as it would purchase, estimated at 700, 
would present themselves in Santiago "not in ten 
years." The crown acknowledged with thanks this 



202 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

evidence of the colony's interest in the matter but issued 
no orders and so the money lay until eventually the 
crown resumed possession of it for his own purposes. 

To mitigate their disappointment at not receiving 
slaves as expected from the revenues of 1531, the colon- 
ists demanded reduction in the percentage due the 
crown on gold mined: it had fluctuated from a fifth to 
a tenth, or an eighth, and varied as the miners were 
Cubefios or negroes, and now the colonists talked of a 
fifteenth or a twentieth being quite enough to pay. 
Mining was still the island's principal interest, es- 
pecially in the central districts, and gold was still 
produced in amount that would have been better ap- 
preciated had not Mexico and other portions of the 
continent been in glorious competition to fill the strong 
boxes of Charles V. June 13, 1527, to March 4, 1528, 
there were smelted at Santiago 22,685 pesos of "fine" 
gold and 6,035 of "low" gold, of Cuban origin. Feb- 
ruary 10, 1528, to April 3, 1529, 30,970 pesos in all were 
smelted, the diminution being due, the treasurer said, 
to rebellion among the Cubefios. In token of divine 
approval of the crown's willingness to provide the island 
with black slave labor (or so the colonists assured the 
emperor!) new rich mines of gold ore in veins (as con- 
trasted with the usual placers) were discovered, — the 
Jobabo mines at Cueyba, — which in five months 
yielded 50,000 pesos, and this together with the crown's 
promise of slaves raised the island, as Vadillo put it, 
from the dead. In 1534 Rojas found mines in operation 
near Puerto Principe, at Sabana de Guaimaro, at 
Portillo, at Vasco Porcallo's settlement of Sabana, and 
perhaps elsewhere as well. In 1535 the production of 
gold fell off discouragingly: lack of labor and simply 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 203 

that the metal was not found were the explanations 
given. Hurtado advised that the crown pay official 
prospectors to go look for new mines. In 1538 gold 
mined in the island amounted to a little less than 
13,000 pesos, the lowest record in twelve years. 

Gold presumably in bars as turned out by the fun- 
dicion circulated through the colony as a medium of 
exchange. To relieve it from that duty the island had 
asked in Velazquez's time and again in 1526 for gold, 
silver and copper coins to a total of two cuentos and, 
apparently, got them. Certainly in all this century, 
much as Cuba complained of cheap silver from Panama, 
the colony did not suffer from bad money (mala moneda) 
as, for instance, did Porto Rico where at one period 
cuartos in circulation were worth more as copper for 
industrial purposes than as coin! This evil of debased 
currency was at the period common to Spain as well 
as to her Indies; it was an effect of the irrational eco- 
nomic policies Charles permitted, which, it might be 
added, were errors not peculiarly his own. Economics 
was a science as yet an unknown. 

Charles was especially anxious to find iron in Cuba, — 
he needed it to make artillery for his endless wars, — 
and he waxed indignant when he was not promptly ad- 
vised of its existence here. That Columbus had seen 
deposits of this mineral had been forgotten, and the 
crown was at one time informed that there was no iron 
in the island! It is curious to note in passing that cer- 
tain " round stones" were at one time sent from Cuba 
to Spain to be used as cannon balls, but the cost of 
transportation exceeded their value. 

Some time previous to this (probably in 1529) copper 
had been discovered three leagues from Santiago in 



204 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

what was called the Cardenillo hill, but nothing was 
known of its value until it chanced that among pas- 
sengers of a ship coming from Mexico was a bell-maker 
who on hearing of the ore, visited the place, took speci- 
mens and out of them extracted copper. He must 
have expressed immediate appreciation of what are now 
the famous Cobre mines for a dispute at once arose 
between Governor Guzman, who seems to have thought 
the settlers had a right to profit by the mineral, and the 
royal officials, who declared the crown entitled to dis- 
pose of the deposit as he should see fit. It has been 
deduced from certain analyses made by Dr. Ledoux 
that the aborigines of Cuba worked the copper mines of 
Cobre and trafficked in copper with primitive peoples of 
Florida because copper relics of those tribes when as- 
sayed have shown the presence of the same percentages 
of silver and gold that are contained in the ore of these 
Cuban deposits. No other ore known assays the same. 
As against this theory stands the fact that the Cubenos 
seem to have made no use of the metal among them- 
selves. I have found nothing in the documents I have 
seen to throw any light on this point. The Spaniards 
of Santiago, however, early considered the mines im- 
portant and in reporting to the crown in September, 
1530, the governor and officials urged that metallur- 
gists and bellows be sent to make exploitation possible 
and that the crown develop the mines as his own but 
also permit vecinos to work the deposits on the basis of 
10% payable to the royal revenues. The crown entered 
into an agreement with Luis de Espinosa, silversmith, 
looking to exploitation of these mines. Espinosa bound 
himself to take equipment to Cuba, to build a masonry 
house suitable for a fundicion at the foot of the copper 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 205 

hill. The crown evidently intended the vecinos should 
be free to mine the ore, since for handling it for them 
Espinosa was authorized to charge them rates to be set 
by the governor and royal officials. On what copper 
he and eight other persons mined he was to pay the 
crown one-tenth part only whereas all others were to 
pay the king one-fifth. Apparently no actual develop- 
ment of the mines was made under this concession al- 
though Espinosa attempted it. Guzman said he was 
unable to do anything alone and some clause in his 
concession prevented partnership of any sort. More- 
over, Guzman added, one-fifth was too much to expect 
the vecinos to pay the crown on copper mining; an 
order was consequently issued making the rate one- 
tenth for ten years. 

Interest in the copper deposits at Santiago revived 
in 1540 at a time when the crown was finding it 
most difficult to lay hand on artillery for casting 
which that metal was useful indeed. In April of that 
year a German passing through Santiago from the 
Flemish settlement in Venezuela, — presumably Juan 
Tezel of Nuremberg, visited the deposits and, believing 
he saw value there, entered into an agreement with 
the town council to work them. He extracted 55% 
and 60% copper from the ore and it was found to carry 
gold and silver. The Lie. Vadilio, who happened to be 
passing through Santiago from the continent en route 
to Santo Domingo, said the proportion was two ounces 
of gold to a hundredweight of copper: samples were 
sent to Spain which the crown ordered tested. The 
settlers fondly hoped that as the mines deepened the 
percentage of gold and silver would increase. They 
petitioned for authority to mine forever on payment 



206 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

of a twentieth to the crown and their petition was 
granted for ten years. Hurtado demanded that work- 
men who understood copper refining be sent to Cuba 
" unless the ore is to lie where it grew." By 1541 there 
were forty negroes at work in the mines and Gaspar de 
Lomanes had smelted more than 150 quintales, though 
a freshet carried away improvements made. In Jan- 
uary, 1546, Tezel entered into an agreement with the 
crown to work these mines; he had taken samples to 
Germany, — home of skilled metallurgists, — and evi- 
dently they had proven up to expectations, for he re- 
ported the mines to be medium rich in quality and 
plentiful in quantity. Tezel, or so he informed the 
crown, had learned copper smelting in Germany. When 
he arrived in Santiago, accompanied by his officials 
(who were Freidrich, Conrad, etc., etc.) the settlers de- 
manded that he divulge the secrets of the art. Their 
quarrels waxed hot but Doctor Angulo arranged a 
compromise agreement between Tezel and the council 
according to which Tezel was permitted to stake off two 
mines for himself; he agreed to teach copper mining 
and smelting to slaves the settlers sent to him for in- 
struction, in exchange for one and a half year's service 
from each apprentice, he to find them; he had a right to 
turn off those who proved incapable of learning, and 
in recompense for time, money and genius he expended 
on this matter he and his heirs were to receive 3% on 
the copper mined thereafter by others throughout the 
island, — all this in addition to the privileges conferred 
by his previous agreement with the king. Tezel spent 
the rest of his life, — twenty years, — in exploiting the 
copper mines of Cobre. Before 1545 Juan de Lobera 
had taken 90 quintales of Cuban copper to Spain; in 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 207 

the spring of 1547 more arrived and Seville was ordered 
to cast it into artillery for the fort in Havana and to 
report upon its quality as demonstrated in this practical 
manner. Seville proposed to cast three cannon; one, 
a falconet, burst in the casting and the master in charge 
who went to the hospital in consequence may have 
been the author of an opinion which, certainly, long 
prevailed, that Cuban copper was of intractable quality. 

Agricultural development in the island was slow. The 
land about Santiago was cultivated to food-crops in 
which there was traffic with mainland settlements. 
These farms and trade in their products were the prin- 
cipal business of the residents, and during Rojas' ad- 
ministration measures were taken (1535) to protect 
them from damage from loose stock, the documents 
indicating a considerable conflict of interests. Else- 
where the cattle industry was more important than 
agriculture. All districts alike, however, were offended 
when de Soto, departing for Florida to remain there and 
from there exploit Cuba as a base of supplies, issued 
an order prohibiting exportation of food stuffs or cattle 
to any market excepting Florida. This measure was 
bitterly resented. The crown was told that it con- 
stituted the immediate ruin of the colony because it 
extinguished all its trade, and on October 3, 1539, a 
cedula commanded that vecinos be permitted to ship 
their goods wherever they desired to ship them for sale. 
Cuba then continued to export primitive food stuffs 
and meat both dried and on the hoof to Tierra Firme 
from Santiago and from Trinidad, and to Mexico from 
Havana and from Matanzas. 

Possibilities of the sugar industry, appreciated in 
1523, in ten years thereafter came no nearer realization 



208 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

than a repeated expression of that appreciation: while 
in Spain in 1533 Guzman had obtained leave to import 
fifty slaves which were to be admitted free of duty on 
condition that he was to commence work on a sugar 
mill within two years and finish it in four, failure to 
do so making him liable to heavy penalties. When 
Guzman, evidently desiring to avoid these, asked that 
he be permitted to import these slaves free of duty and 
without any conditions attached, the reply was refusal 
and evidently he accomplished nothing in the matter. 
At this same time Hernando de Castro expressed desire 
to erect "the first sugar mill in Cuba" for which, he 
said, he had land and water available a league and a 
half from Santiago. To develop it he asked fifty 
Cubenos and leave to import fifty negroes free of duty 
and that privileges already conferred upon planters of 
Santo Domingo be extended to him. He was willing 
to obligate himself to finish his mill in three years, 
mortgaging forty negroes he owned as guarantee. The 
council for the Indies recommended that he be per- 
mitted to import the blacks free of duty (giving security 
to finish the mill in three years), it being provided that 
he might not sell these slaves or export them from the 
island, and if he failed to erect the mill as agreed he was 
to pay double duty on the slaves. Doubtless a cedula 
in accordance with the council's recommendations was 
issued to Castro, but apparently he did not succeed in 
his enterprise. Ten years later Juanes de Avila reported 
that the soil, climate and availability of water for ir- 
rigating purposes, proved Cuba well adapted to sugar- 
making and he suggested that a loan of three or four 
thousand pesos would encourage the erection of two or 
three factories. When his brother, Alonso de Avila, 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 209 

went to court as procurador, he was instructed to ask 
that a loan of 4000 pesos be made to chosen persons to 
enable them to build mills. Chaves reported that in 
May, 1548, "a resident" of Santiago was at work upon 
a sugar factory in the immediate vicinity of that settle- 
ment and he had hopes that others would follow his 
example. In 1551 the council for the Indies reported 
favorably upon Governor Angulo's suggestion that ten 
or twelve thousand pesos be lent to help establish five 
or six mills in Cuba, and 300 slaves admitted for field 
laborers. Elsewhere, — in Porto Rico and in La Es- 
panola especially, — sugar was the principal interest; 
nevertheless, although there were always those who 
thought they saw in it the whole future of Cuba, the 
sugar industry was not established in this island until 
circa 1590. 

Records I have examined do not show that Cuba was 
taxed during the sixteenth century, except indirectly 
in customs duties, and by way of the crown's "fifth" 
on metals mined. To be sure, in 1529-30 Charles did 
borrow from residents of Cuba, for his campaigns 
against Barbarossa. Guzman, who raised the loan, 
classified the contributors thereto as those who lent 
willingly, those who lent unwillingly, those who were 
tricked into lending and those who refused flatly to 
lend at all. This money was, however, repaid with 
interest. Much later, Spain considered the advisability 
of levying in Cuba that most obnoxious transfer tax 
called the alcabala, but on the governor's adverse report 
as to the island's ability to pay it, refrained. Up to 
1543 customs duties continued payable ad valorem at 
the rate of 73^%. Similarly 7 X A% was collected in 
Seville on all merchandise arriving from the Indies. 



210 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

In 1543 23^2% of this was declared to be a " removal tax" 
payable at port of origin in the Indies. Cuba was 
exempt from payment of this export tax; the only 
effect of it on the island was variation thereafter ac- 
cording to the region of origin in the amount of duty 
chargeable on goods entering Cuban ports. In 1538 
collections in Cuba were a little over 1999 pesos. Ex- 
penditures for salaries, etc., increased faster than did 
receipts: when de Soto presented unusual warrants 
the bottom of the three-keyed box appeared, bare, 
and records cease to show any remittances to Spain 
of accumulated surplus; instead, by the middle of the 
century Cuba began to look to Tierra Firme, and later 
to Mexico, for support. This despite the fact that 
regulations governing customs matters became stricter. 
Guards, to prevent smuggling, were established. Mer- 
chandise arriving unmanifested was (1535) to be con- 
fiscated in fact, rather than overlooked as it had been 
on the plea that it amounted to little after all. The 
crown's " fifth" on metals mined, — which, as stated, 
was sometimes a fifth, sometimes an eighth, or a tenth, 
or a twentieth,— dwindled and disappeared as gold 
mining ceased. It will be recalled that the small 
revenue accruing from penas de camara (petty fines), 
had been appropriated to the support of hospitals and 
churches (and the Franciscan monastery in Santiago) 
to which pious purposes, also, the crown devoted cer- 
tain disputed customs collections on Indian slaves and 
any other money too " tainted" for him to handle. 

Because Cuba had no sugar, nor anything else save 
hides, tallow, etc., and perhaps a little hard wood, to 
export, the island felt the detrimental effects of Spanish 
commercial policies in this century less than did other 



SOCIAL AND COMMERCIAL DEVELOPMENT 211 

colonies; less than Porto Rico where ginger plantings 
were destroyed by court order, and less than La Es- 
panola where the sugar industry was stifled by irrational 
regulations governing shipment and marketing of the 
crop. Only when freedom of inter-colony trade through 
the Caribbean was threatened, did Cuba protest. It is 
actually unnecessary to take up for consideration in 
relation to Cuba any aspect of Seville's monopoly of 
Indian trade. That (generally speaking) all mer- 
chandise for the Indies must clear from that port and 
all merchandise from the Indies must enter Spain there, 
was not a matter of vital moment to a colony which was 
importing little and exporting less. In the struggle of 
other colonies for freedom to trade with Galicia and 
with Flanders, Cuba had no part. Yet there can be 
no doubt that indirectly the island suffered from the 
stunting effect of existing restrictions. When (1556?) 
authorities in the Canary Islands acquired the right to 
clear vessels for the Indies, trade which already existed 
between Canary ports and Cuba developed further, 
and presently documents give glimpses of considerable 
fleets plying regularly between there and Havana. 
This Canary Island trade had a stimulating beneficial 
influence which is, however, difficult to set forth in 
detail. 

Seville, nevertheless, — meaning its casa de la con- 
tratacion, other colonial offices there through which 
the crown administered the Americas, and even the 
council for the Indies, — represents another rapidly 
developing phase of the relationship between Spain and 
her colonies. Just as the trade of the western hem- 
isphere was mercilessly exploited for the benefit of 
Seville's merchants, so in time the political administra- 



212 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

tion of half a world came to be manipulated for the 
benefit of a bureaucracy which at this time had its 
center in that same city. Cuba, being as yet a lemon 
little worth the squeezing, saw this development in 
only one of its aspects: the incompetence of authorities 
in Seville who were charged with her affairs. They came 
to constitute an intolerable barrier between the crown, 
issuing orders as petitioned, and the colony which was 
not always reached by those orders, because Seville 
flagrantly neglected or openly disobeyed commands. 
Artillerymen now appear to draw salaries in forts where 
there is no artillery; garrisons are despatched overseas 
without any appropriation for their payment; skilled 
expensive men are sent to build works for which no 
materials are provided; and so forth, ad infinitum, as 
the bureaucratic paralysis spreads. Here and there a 
virile character like Lobera, like Mazariegos, or espe- 
cially like Tejeda, cut through the network of red tape 
which involved him, and by high-handed disregard of 
superiors and all law, achieved salutary results; most 
officials, however, succumbed, — disheartened by slow 
and infrequent communication with their home offices, 
and discouraged by ignorance, partiality and neglect 
there. When one remembers that, — incompetent and 
careless as it appears to have been,— Spain's govern- 
ment under Charles V. and Philip II. is rated one of 
the most efficient in the Europe of its time, the only 
consolation a student of Cuba's affairs can draw from 
the comparison is the thought that doubtless he will not 
be called upon to prove that the French in Canada or 
the English in Virginia struggled for existence with any 
heavier millstones about their necks than Cuba carried 
after 1550 in the shape of the bureaucracy of Seville. 



FOREWORD TO BOOK III 

Documentary sources of information concerning 
Cuba in the years 1550 to 1573 are scattered, in the 
Archive of the Indies. Unfortunately, in 54-1-15 
correspondence of governors is missing from 1553 to 
1563. The main thread runs through the cedularios of 
79-4-2, and packages 54-1-15; 54-1-31; 54-1-32; 
54-1-34; 54-2-2. Other data exist in the following 
eighty-four legajos: 1-1-1/19; 1-1-1/26; 1-2-2/18; 2-1- 
1/25; 2-1-24/36; 2-3-13/14; 2-5-1/14; 2-5-1/22; 2-5- 
4/12; 2-5-5/13; 2-6-6; 2-6-7; 2-6-8; 2-6-11; 7-1-1/12; 
46-4-1/33; 47-1-8/35; 47-1-19; 47-1-21; 47-2-31/26; 
47-2-42/37; 47-3-1/22; 47-3-48/5; 47-3-55/12; 47-3- 
54/11; 47-3-49/6; 48-4-29/39; 50-2-50/7; 51-1-27-3; 
51-1-31/27; 51-1-39/35; 51-2-48/5; 51-2-49/6; 51-2- 
62/19; 51-2-65/22; 51-2-67/24; 51-3-80/4; 51-5-8/18; 
51-5-9/19; 51-5-10/20; 51-5-12/22; 51-6-15/13; 51-6- 
17/15; 53-1-7; 53-1-10; 53-2-9; 53-4-9; 53-6-5; 53-6- 
6; 53-6-7; 53-6-8; 54-1-9; 54-1-11; 54-1-14/41; 54- 
2-5; 54-2-6; 54-3-1 ; 54-3-4; 54-3-6; 54-3-15; 54-3-16; 
54-3-17; 54-3-19; 54-5-6; 58-5-8; 85-1-14; 98-7-8; 
139-1-10; 139-1-11; 139-6-20; 140-3-9; 140-7-31; 140- 
7-32; 143-3-12; 146-1-8; 147-5-15; 148-2-6; 148-2-7; 
148-4-5; 151-2-8; 153-1-6; 154-1-8; 155-2-25; 155- 
4-16. 

I. A. W. 



213 



BOOK III 
CHAPTER XIII 

FIKST FORTS AND ARMADAS (1537-1549) 

The great duel fought between Charles V. "of Ger- 
many," and Francis L, of France, for the mastery of 
Europe, was frequently interrupted by truces and by 
treaties, but from the point of view of Cuban history 
of their time it may be considered a continuous enmity. 
Despite the fact that the pope as God's vicar on earth 
in dividing the New World between Portugal and Spain 
had given the Caribbean and its islands to his Most 
Catholic Majesty, the Christian King of France was not 
always displeased when bold spirits among his subjects 
carried the war between Valois and Hapsburg into the 
western hemisphere. Especially, it may have gratified 
him to see " heretics" with whom the Reformation was 
filling France, annoy the orthodox vassals of his dearest 
enemy. On one occasion Charles suspected that an 
expedition fitted out at Dieppe was intended to capture 
Havana; instead, the French under Cartier and Rober- 
val attempted the first settlement of Canada. Hard 
experience had not yet taught them that "the frozen 
country" held no such easy treasures as had the islands 
of the tropics and the southern continent; therefore the 
French had as yet turned no very covetous eyes toward 
the Caribbean. Neither had Spanish commerce there 
developed to a point it later attained when the plate 

215 



216 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

fleets out of Nombre de Dios and Vera Cruz became not 
only profitable prey to individual looters but a vul- 
nerable point for attack on Spain herself because the 
whole fabric of her greatness was upheld by the wealth 
they carried. Prior to say 1560 French policy toward 
the Spanish Indies, in so far as it existed at all, was 
merely one of annoyance. It nevertheless was sufficient 
to build the first fort of any importance ever erected in 
Cuba and it shaped up Spain's curious commercial- 
naval policy with respect to America which was ex- 
pressed in her famous plate fleets sailing the storied 
"Spanish main" under armed escort for protection 
against corsairs. 

The French were the corsairs of the period. They 
roved the seas, preying on Spanish merchant vessels 
everywhere and taking settlements of the Indies to 
hold to ransom, or to destroy, as suited their conven- 
ience. These Frenchmen were not, nevertheless, mere 
lawless marauders; sometimes they were nobles of 
standing, with authority from the king of France for 
their expeditions, and the damage they inflicted was 
more than once subject of state council deliberations 
and of diplomatic negotiation, or, considered as occa- 
sioned in due course of war, it was taken into account in 
the making of peace treaties. 

Ever since 1518 when report spread that Spanish 
vessels " ballasted with gold" were coming unprotected 
out of Mexico, the coasts of Spain itself and later the 
Indian trade routes had been harried by French " rob- 
bers by sea," — the Spaniards they despoiled refused to 
see them in any other character. The first specific men- 
tion I have found of their incommoding Cuba relates 
how, evidently early in the year 1537, a Frenchman 



FIRST FORTS AND ARMADAS (1537-1549) 217 

who had already done damage along the mainland 
appeared off Havana in which harbor there were five 
Spanish vessels about to set out ". . . by the Bahama 
channel to Spain." Juan de Rojas and Juan de Bazan 
(alcaldes, I take it, of Havana) compelled three of these 
vessels to pursue and engage this corsair when, pres- 
ently, he withdrew from before Havana to the port of 
Marien. After an artillery fight within the port of 
Marien which Gonzalo de Guzman says lasted three 
days the French were about to flee when the wind 
suddenly blew most unpropitiously for the Spaniards; 
they therefore deserted their vessels, escaping to land 
and the French took possession of all three ships, burn- 
ing two and carrying off the third. This corsair, it 
appears, boldly entered Havana harbor and declared 
his intention to sack the town if any ill befell his vessels 
as they lay in port. It seems to have been his plan to 
wait there in the bay for Spanish vessels putting in 
from Tierra Firme and Mexico, but presently he went 
out to capture them further west, presumably off Cape 
San Anton where difficulties of doubling that point 
made the overhauling of sailing craft fairly easy. When 
news of his success in so doing reached Havana one 
vessel there unloaded what bullion it had aboard and 
put back to Mexico to advise the viceroy of the situa- 
tion. For the first time, it would seem, such precious 
cargo was landed in Havana for safe-keeping: because 
corsairs had made the sea unsafe between Cuba and 
Spain. In 1537-38 communications out of Santiago 
were seriously interrupted "so shameless, bold and 
continuous" was the presence of the French. The more 
important island of La Espafiola was suffering even 
more severely. The audiencia expressed to the king 



218 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

astonishment and indignation at the corsairs' audacity 
everywhere, and the city of Santo Domingo lamented 
that the Indies were defenceless. 

Early in April of 1538 a brigantine which cleared 
from Santiago offshore met a Frenchman who had al- 
ready done serious damage in La Espanola. The 
Spaniard tried to escape back into port but was over- 
hauled at the entrance into that harbor, which, be- 
cause of its natural advantages had been considered safe 
from any intrusion. The watch on Morro headland had 
advised the town of a sail approaching and small boats 
had come out as usual to welcome it. They found the 
Frenchman despoiling his Spanish prize. He with- 
drew, taking the brigantine' s crew with him as cap- 
tives, but next day, guided by the pilot among them, 
he negotiated the narrow entrance and with all sail set 
he bore arrogantly across the bay toward the amazed 
and terrified town. Although the settlers were un- 
armed (they might have mustered eight crossbows 
among them), Gonzalo de Guzman declared that the 
landing place might have been defended by thirty 
men, — "if they had been men," — especially if the 
negro population had assisted by throwing stones. 
Instead, in view of their lack of weapons when the 
enemy appeared the vecinos betook themselves to their 
outlying estates carrying their women and other val- 
uables with them. The royal officials went along, con- 
veying to safety the contents of the king's three-keyed 
box. 

The corsair would then have burned the town, — 
"and the town burned," Guzman continued, reporting 
to the crown, "I think your majesty would have had no 
island of Cuba left," — had it not been for Diego Perez. 



FIRST FORTS AND ARMADAS (1537-1549) 219 

Diego Perez was a merchant of Seville who with at 
least two good ships had been doing business with Cuba 
for some years. His vessel then in Santiago harbor was 
the Magdalena, — small enough to fit in the corsair's 
hull, the Spaniards said, — but when the Frenchman 
bore down upon her, intent to ram her, she withdrew 
into very shallow water and from that vantage she 
fought the enemy desperately for hours. 

Merchantman that she was the Magdalena carried 
artillery. Although Diego Perez had an artilleryman he 
took that post himself and never straightened from over 
his shots nor turned his face from the enemy until, 
after nightfall, the firing ceased. Under cover of dark- 
ness the corsair withdrew. He lingered a few days off 
port and then disappeared in the direction of Havana. 
He had while fighting in Santiago bay burned a ship 
laden with cazabe for the mainland coast. All agreed, 
in lauding Perez's prowess, that only his valor saved the 
town from a similar fate at the Frenchman's hands. 
The Spanish losses were three or four men killed and the 
Magdalena damaged. The Frenchman was believed to 
have suffered more severely; two of his dead were found 
and buried. For his service on this occasion and thirty 
years of similar sort preceding Diego Perez asked a 
coat-of-arms of the king of Spain whereon a lion should 
suggest how he had fought that day; the enemy's 
character was to be intimated by a wolf rampant, and 
he wanted a border of bursting bombs around the 
whole, — reminiscent of the sort of courtesies exchanged. 

Unfortunately, there was no Diego Perez in Havana 
when the same Frenchman that militant merchant had 
driven from Santiago appeared off the western port. 
Its people fled the town, which the corsair looted. The 



220 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

audiencia informed the king that he took even the 
church bells and that he insulted an image of Saint 
Peter by hanging it at a hut's door where it became a 
target for oranges thrown by those among the French- 
man's crew whose protestantism found satisfactory 
expression in this version of the " image-breaking " in 
vogue in France at the time. De Soto, learning of this 
heretic's visit to Havana, took immediate steps to re- 
pair what damage he had done in his fifteen days' stay. 
Havana was obviously the point in Cuba from which 
to operate against Florida. Before de Soto left Spain, 
it had been decided to build a fort in Havana to protect 
the harbor and its shipping and that the adelantado 
should have charge of the work, for on March 20, 1537, 
the authorities at Seville were ordered to inform them- 
selves as to a convenient site by consulting persons 
who had been in Havana. It was especially desired to 
overcome the danger and disadvantage of a certain hill 
overlooking the port. I do not believe that this hill 
was Cabana, but, on the other hand, that it was the 
eminence to the west which has since almost dis- 
appeared from observation under the city itself, — few 
note how much higher Central Park is than the plaza 
de armas. They were to inform de Soto of their views, 
for his guidance, and if he decided that he needed to take 
with him a master builder and materials they were to 
provide these, reporting the matter to the crown. 
Seville was to determine whether or not it would be 
better to build on Morro headland instead of in the 
town itself. On the same date de Soto was advised to 
the same effect : that a fort was to be built, that he was 
to have charge, and that the royal officials of Cuba 
would supply the money. He was to take Seville's 



FIRST FORTS AND ARMADAS (1537-1549) 221 

report into consideration. If he decided in favor of a 
fort in the town rather than on Morro, he was to follow 
a plan therewith supplied him. Presumably de Soto 
did not have time to reach a decision in this matter 
before he sailed for Cuba, for the authorities of Seville 
in reply on the point stated that they had written to de 
Soto to report on the port and on the site he would 
suggest for the fort, and to send a drawing of the local- 
ity. The crown expressed a desire to see this when 
it should come. Immediately on reaching Cuba de 
Soto demanded 4000 pesos of the royal officials at 
Santiago (on the strength of a royal cedula to them in- 
structing them to provide the necessary funds) with 
which he proposed, they said, to buy a dozen slaves and 
the materials needed to build the fort in Havana. They 
had had 5000 pesos in the three-keyed box but of these 
1500 had been paid out on other warrants. Of the 
balance of 3500 pesos they reluctantly delivered 3000 to 
de Soto and on reporting to the crown that they had 
done so they inquired how much if any more they 
should furnish on demand, and hinted (then, and 
Hurtado said it more plainly later) that they doubted 
that the money would be honestly applied to the work 
for which it was appropriated. Since they could not be 
expected to go to Havana to keep account of the matter 
they requested that the alcaldes and councilmen there 
be instructed to do so. In reply the crown pointed out 
to them that they had not been ordered to deliver 
money to de Soto, but to expend it on a fort for Havana 
under his direction. They were bidden to read royal 
cedulas more intelligently. The king was " amazed" 
at their failure to observe the fine point of this one and 
intimated that any other error of the sort would be 



222 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

made at their own expense. Hurtado said that de 
Soto persuaded the factor Castro with a grant of twenty 
Cubehos to deliver over this money. The fort, the 
treasurer estimated, would cost 2000 pesos and would 
not be begun for a year. The actual work on Havana's 
first fort was given by de Soto to Juan de Azeituno, an 
old resident of Santiago, to do. He built it in seven 
months and, having reported it done, habitable and 
defensible, he was on March 12, 1540, made alcaide 
(warden) of it by royal commission at a salary less than 
that which de Soto had assigned him as builder. 

I believe that this first fort,— which was square 
and had a square tower thirty-seven feet high, — was 
situated approximately where the state department 
stands to-day. It was unwisely located and poorly con- 
structed; Juanes de Avila (who wrote that in 1545 he 
had added bastions to it) declared that he considered 
it "no fort at all except in name" and generals of pass- 
ing armadas instructed to inspect and report upon it 
agreed in condemning it. De Avila said that no alcaide 
to command the fort was necessary, — that the gov- 
ernor's representative in Havana could assume charge 
of it, — and there is evidence that during his administra- 
tion Francisco de Parada succeeded Azeituno in that 
responsibility, his salary being possession of a village 
of natives, some fifty in number, at Matabano which 
had been the Lady Isabel de Bobadilla's. By 1548 
Juan de Lobera who was a vecino of Havana, brother- 
in-law of Juan de Rojas and able to recite his lineage 
back to days of King John of Navarre and Aragon 
whom one ancestor served as mayordomo, had become 
the fort's alcaide. He shared in the general poor opinion 
of it. As early as August, 1549, the crown suspected 



FIRST FORTS AND ARMADAS (1537-1549) 223 

that it was " of little service, ... to remedy the matter 
most of it must be torn down," and perhaps another 
site chosen for an entirely new work, the location pre- 
ferred being that of Juan de Rojas' masonry residences, 
which is the site that Fuerza occupies to-day. 

In 1540-41, because of French activities evident in 
Jacques Cartier's and Roberval's voyages and expedi- 
tions to settle in Canada, the crown evinced desire to see 
Havana's fort well equipped for defence and the citizens 
armed. Artillery was especially necessary, although 
there was some in the town planted before Rojas' 
masonry houses, and on Morro headland which some 
persons considered a point of greatest strategical im- 
portance. "The savage," a cannon weighing 47 quin- 
tales, from Alonso Bazan's ship, and a culebrin, each 
with 150 balls, and five small falconets with their 
ammunition, were assigned to the service of the fort. 
Seville was ordered to provide an artilleryman on 
salary payable from Cuban revenues and seems to have 
had difficulty in finding one to accept the post at 150 
ducats, passage for self and goods provided. The 
despatch of a garrison of twenty-five men was discussed. 
The artilleryman, however, materialized before the 
artillery he was to handle, and he was on the scene 
drawing pay at a time when there were no guns to en- 
gage his attention. In the year 1545-46 Juan de Lobera, 
dissatisfied with this state of affairs, exerted himself 
energetically in Spain to obtain artillery and in the very 
early months of 1546 he sailed for Cuba with some, 
which the cedulas which he carried suggest he meant to 
land at its destination regardless of red tape at Seville 
and of governors of ports en route who might seek to 
appropriate it to their own ill-equipped fortifications. 



224 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

This first fort in Havana was the first monument in 
Cuba to any foreign influence in the island's affairs. 
Fear of the French built it, and Fuerza which succeeded 
it, just as later fear of the English built Punta and Morro 
castles. All of these fortifications were indicative, not 
of any appreciation of Cuba for herself, but of the 
strategical importance of Havana as a wayport be- 
tween the mainland of America and the peninsula of 
Spain. 

Even in Vadillo's time Havana was the second city 
in size in the island, and despite protests that it was an 
innovation the royal officials were then ordered to col- 
lect what duties were payable on merchandise entering 
that port; they were to act through an alcalde and two 
regidores they were to appoint to represent them there. 
Winds and currents determined trade-routes for the sail- 
driven craft of the era and before de Soto's arrival 
Havana was the rendezvous of vessels homeward bound 
from Tierra Firme and Mexico; there they made repairs, 
took on water and provisions, and in general made 
ready for the long slow crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. 
Now, too, fear of the French was shaping Spain's system 
of protection for Indian trade. On May 12, 1537, the 
crown advised the governor of Cuba that because of 
the activity of French corsairs Blasco Nunez Vela with 
an armada (the word means an armed fleet, i. e., a 
squadron of warships) would call for gold and silver to 
be sent to Spain to the crown; the audiencia of Santo 
Domingo ordered the royal officials to send no bullion 
to Spain save in navios de armada. Private persons 
might take advantage of the protection Nunez Vela's 
squadron represented to send their gold and silver home 
if they so desired, but that they do so was not compul- 



FIRST FORTS AND ARMADAS (1537-1549) 225 

sory. It is possible that those who shipped by the 
armada regretted it, for there is evidence that when 
Nunez Vela returned to Spain the crown took possession 
of various lots of bullion he bought which were privately 
owned; all was however soon repaid less 1% of the 
convoy tax plus 3 1/3% interest. This, to all appear- 
ances the first armada despatched to Indies to protect 
bullion shipments, may have called at Santiago in Cuba, 
though I doubt it ; others immediately following it made 
Havana their port. The armada of four or six vessels 
which Cuba was advised in October, 1541, to expect 
was to go to Havana from Nombre de Dios, and Mexico 
was ordered to have its bullion in Havana for the general 
in command to pick up there. Thus the route later 
followed by the rich plate fleets was early laid down 
with Havana as the rendezvous for shipping from 
Tierra Firme and from Mexico. Merchantmen had 
still been permitted to sail to and from the Indies as 
they chose, at their own risk; in 1539 they had been 
ordered to carry certain artillery, but now, in 1543, 
on petition of Seville merchants the crown ordered 
that in time of war ships bound for the Indies should 
sail together, in convoyed fleets. Possibly merchant 
vessels in a fleet crossed with Blasco Nunez's and sub- 
sequent armadas; however, it was apparently not then 
required that they do so, — but now all trading vessels 
must sail under guard. No vessel less than ten tons 
burden was to be cleared for Indies ; the minimum fleet 
was to be ten vessels, and they were to leave in March 
and again in September from Seville escorted by war- 
ships which after seeing them safely past danger were 
to devote three months to hunting corsairs in the Carib- 
bean, at the end of that time presenting themselves in 



226 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Havana to escort home again those merchant vessels 
which should have congregated there for the crossing. 
Earlier armadas had been specially instructed to guard 
the treasure they carried and avoid encounters with 
the enemy. The escorting armada of 1543-44 found 
it wiser to follow the same tactics: so active were the 
French, especially between Tierra Firme and Havana, 
the warships assigned to convoy this first merchant 
fleet stood by their charge all along the route. At the 
end of 1544, the war being over, Seville merchants peti- 
tioned that the restriction on shipping which the fore- 
going arrangement represented be removed, and it was 
so ordered. Merchantmen were again free to sail from 
Seville when they would for the new world. 

But, hostilities between France and England provid- 
ing corsairs with a cover under which to molest Spanish 
trade, in January, 1546, a secret conference was ordered 
at Seville to consider ways and means of protection. 
Merchants held that the armadas of former years had 
been expensive and ineffective; it was now suggested 
that merchant ships be armed to protect themselves, 
and that they be more lightly laden (to facilitate quick 
manoeuvres), that they sail in fleets, an armada going 
forth to meet them and to escort them in on their re- 
turn since on the coasts of Spain itself most danger now 
threatened. Whatever may have been the tenor of 
deliberations through the year 1546, the former ar- 
rangement of convoyed fleets of not less than ten ves- 
sels, each over 100 tons burden, was ordered continued, 
as a war measure until further notice, but because 
Seville protested that no armada was available to escort 
vessels already, in April, 1547, laden for clearance in 
Seville, and because longer delay in their departure 



FIRST FORTS AND ARMADAS (1537-1549) 227 

meant ruin of their cargoes, the crown permitted these 
to go unconvoyed, but armed for their own defence. In 
brief, Spain's commercial policies as these affected 
transportation were as yet in uncertain, formative 
stage. 



CHAPTER XIV 

DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE FRENCH (1550-1555) 

Tantas son las calamidades y miserias por sus pasos contados 
se va acabando (la isla). — Bishop Duranga, 54-1-31, p. 179. 

Presence of armadas and merchantmen in Havana 
harbor, and orders that they provide food and water for 
warships and see to it that Mexico's bullion was prop- 
erly delivered to generals in command of these, drew 
governors of Cuba into the west, to keep the peace and 
do justice in that port, and otherwise to render it com- 
petent to meet the demands made upon its resources. 

The greatest immediate need was an adequate ac- 
cessible supply of fresh water. Doubtless some cisterns 
existed, but to replenish visiting ships potable water was 
fetched by their crews or by slaves, in small boats from 
the Almendares River, which comes into the sea a little 
west of Havana. By 1544-45 a plan existed to bring 
water into town by an open ditch from the river to the 
bay. De Avila recommended the project and Chaves, 
authorized to proceed with the work, laid a tax on wine, 
meat and soap to raise the necessary funds. This tax 
persisted, with some interruptions, for the next fifty 
years; it was not until the arrival of Bautista Antoneli, 
at the end of the century, that engineering difficulties 
were overcome, and fresh water poured into the town 
in more than one locality, in quantity sufficient to 
satisfy all demands. 

228 



DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE FRENCH 229 

When in 1550 Doctor Angulo went to Havana, — the 
first governor to take up permanent residence there, — 
he seems to have labored for the improvement of the 
place. He claimed later to have removed the hut which 
had been Havana's church and to have begun work on 
a masonry building (100 x 40 feet) to replace it which 
by November of 1552 was pretty well along, although 
it was not finished in the next three years; others said 
that this work commenced before his arrival in Havana. 
He claimed that he collected alms to help construction 
of the church; his enemies said that he pocketed the 
collections. Angulo claimed to have built an addition 
to the hospital and to have erected two store buildings 
back of it to be rented as an income for the institution. 
He claimed to have built a good abattoir, from fines he 
levied, and to have roofed with ties and otherwise re- 
paired the jail and improved it with a window that 
prisoners " might enjoy a view, and good treatment." 
Prices of food stuffs tended to soar in Havana when 
ships came in: this matter was supposed to be regulated 
by a deputy chosen eveiy three months out of the city 
council, and Angulo claimed to have effectively assisted 
to keep the cost of living normal. In fact, evidence 
seems to be that he was an active if not an excellent 
governor. To complete the unpopularity which pos- 
sibly this very fact won for him, in November, 1552, he 
proclaimed the liberty of Indian slaves, no favorable 
response to the appeal against that measure having 
been received from the crown. 

Santiago through Juan de Agramonte demanded of 
the audiencia a juez de residencia against Angulo, " be- 
cause of his grave offences, venality, robberies and im- 
positions." On June 9, 1552, the city council of Havana 



230 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

meeting secretly in Pedro de Velazquez's house acted 
on the procurador's demand that such a judge be re- 
quested of that court. In September Havana's repre- 
sentatives laid 54 accusations against Angulo before the 
audiencia, adding that they had a ship in Santo Do- 
mingo harbor ready to convey the judge they wanted, 
to Havana at once. 

These accusations allege that Angulo was unjust, and 
" afflicted the city with new sorts and manners of ex- 
tortions," that he manipulated auctions and the value 
of bullion and coin to his own benefit, — that he gambled 
with passengers from Mexico and Peru, to such extent 
that in one case a victim of his- skill died in the charity 
hospital miserably stripped of a fortune, — that he en- 
gaged in trade, — that he permitted Doha Violante his 
wife to dictate decisions in suits at law, — that he treated 
the settlers with disrespect, instructing his under-sheriff 
to carry a club to beat in the head of any who did not 
arise when he entered church, etc., etc., — but the prin- 
cipal complaint seems nevertheless to have been that 
Angulo had taken up his permanent residence in 
Havana. The city wanted him ordered to remove to 
Santiago, insisting that he preferred Havana for private 
business reasons. 

The audiencia hesitated not at all to issue an order to 
this effect; because "it was notorious that Havana was 
a small port," Angulo was bidden to go live at Santiago, 
and since it was expected that he would resist, this order 
was strengthened by a proviso that it be obeyed regard- 
less of any appeal taken. Havana's representatives 
then requested various protective orders: that Angulo 
should not molest the councilmen and others who had 
acted against him, nor carry away with him when he 



DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE FRENCH 231 

went any Indians, mixed breeds, or whites even though 
they seemed to go of their own free will, nor leave any 
business agent behind to represent him in Havana. 
Also, he was forbidden to " impede the council in its 
meetings held for good government of the city." This 
was in response to demand that he be prohibited from 
entering council meetings. Angulo agreed to obey the 
audiencia' s order but added that the cabildo should not 
meet without the governor, thus circumventing the 
intention of the petitioners to prevent him from at- 
tending sessions. 

As to removing to Santiago, when served with the 
audiencia's order to do so, Angulo replied that he 
" obeyed" it with due respect but as to " complying" 
with it, he would inform his majesty. He appealed, 
stating that he was a good governor and judge, that 
the court had been falsely informed, and that the 
root of dislike of him was that he had truly freed 
the Cubenos. This may have been precisely the 
fact. 

Governor Angulo went in person to the audiencia to 
present his side of the controversy in which he had be- 
come involved: he had arrived in Santo Domingo by 
January, 1553. Alonso de Rojas represented Havana. 
To prove that he should reside there Angulo recited the 
importance of Havana harbor as rendezvous for ship- 
ping, and the necessity of his presence to protect it 
from the French. He carried his point and on Feb- 
ruary 4, 1553, the audiencia bade him return and main- 
tain his residence in Havana until the crown should 
decide the issue. As to a judge to residenciar Angulo, 
that court hoped for one from Spain yet when none 
came with the fleet in the early spring of 1553, the 



232 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

audiencia with evident regret decided not to make such 
appointment. 

Angulo returned to Cuba via Santiago, where he pro- 
claimed the Indian slaves of that region free: he trav- 
elled overland toward Havana, repeating this proclama- 
tion at Baracoa, Bayamo, Trinidad and Puerto Principe. 

When he reached Havana (August, 1553?) Angulo 
found the council had (May, 1553) " declared him no 
governor," because he had left his jurisdiction without 
due authority and remained more than ninety days 
away. In June the crown commissioned Lie. Carasa 
to residenciar Angulo and his lieutenants. I have not 
seen any evidence that this commission was used. 
Angulo continued to exercise his office. 

He had come back to Havana in nowise chastened. 
He lost the support of the two Rojas, — of Juan de 
Rojas who had been his representative in Havana dur- 
ing his absence in Santo Domingo, and of Juan de 
Ynestrosa (son of Manuel de Rojas) who had been as 
active in his behalf. Juan de Rojas refused to serve 
longer as regidor and Ynestrosa had to be compelled to 
accept ere he would become alcalde for the year 1554. 
Evidently the atmosphere had become uncongenial to 
the Rojas' temperament, inclined as it was to reason- 
able, just procedure. Again the council complained 
against Angulo and on August 29, 1554, the audiencia 
commissioned Bernardo Bernaldez to act as juez de 
residencia against the governor. I have seen no docu- 
ments concerning any such residencia. 

In 1552-53 Spanish relations with France again 
threatened danger to Cuba. Charles V. and the king of 
France had closed in the last round of their long strug- 
gle. The crown warned the colony, bidding all its 



DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE FRENCH 233 

settlers be on their guard. Lobera, active alcaide of a 
fort he knew to be entirely inadequate to defend 
Havana, served a cedula on the governor and the coun- 
cil in consequence of which the regular nightly patrol 
was increased, look-outs were maintained day and night 
on Morro headland, and two mounted guards were 
stationed near the mouth of the Almendares where 
enemies might be expected to attempt to land. It was 
arranged that on sight of a sail twelve specified men 
were to go into the fort and remain there as garrison 
until its identity was established; if an enemy, they 
remained there to fight, while the rest of the citizens 
when the drum beat were to rally to the governor 
wherever he might be. Every man was to go armed, 
with at least a sword, day and night, and none were to 
leave the city for their country estates without express 
permission of the governor. On review the fighting 
force of the vicinity was found to be sixteen cavalry, in 
command of Juan de Rojas, and about sixty-five in- 
fantry, variously armed. All vessels now approaching 
Havana were to halt outside, salute the fort and submit 
to inspection before entering. From Santo Domingo 
the crown was warned that Havana was helpless and 
Lobera, its alcaide, "very fearful." Under date of 
September, 1553, the island was advised of the renewal 
of hostilities with France. 

There was abroad on the seas in these days Jacques 
Sores, — "one of the best corsairs," according to Pedro 
de Menendez, a good judge of their quality, u in all of 
France and England. He is a Frenchman and they 
call him Captain Sores. ..." He had served with 
distinction under other men until, falling out with his 
superior, he betook himself with a single ship into the 



234 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Indies to do damage on his own account. Menendez 
later stated that Sores was patronized by Conde in 
France and by no less than Queen Elizabeth herself in 
England; the Spaniard suspected him to be their 
" captain general on the seas" against the Catholics, and 
said that only Conde's death ended this career for Sores. 
Be this as it may, in the spring of 1554 two French 
caravels and a patax entered Santiago harbor; the 
people defended the town with their artillery, from the 
bulwark by the landing. To animate the faint-hearted 
(there were some), Bishop Duranga who had succeeded 
Sarmiento, deceased, " lifted his skirts and encouraged 
them as best he could, and absolved them as the occa- 
sion demanded." The enemy withdrew, having suc- 
ceeded only in capturing at least two vessels in the bay. 
In July following other Frenchmen whom the bishop 
said were Basques, made a landing toward dawn, sur- 
prised the guard, captured leading men and women 
(whom they held to ransom), and all in all without much 
trouble made themselves masters of the place where 
they remained "as at home" for something over a 
month. They took what they could, and with it de- 
parted at their leisure. They, or their kind, made per- 
haps other visits to the vicinity at this same time; they 
cleaned out Macaca (a south coast port) and brought 
Santiago to such condition that a visiting priest pres- 
ently described its people as terrorized and so reduced 
by these visitations, and by the looting of their trading 
vessels at sea, that "the men had not a coat to their 
backs nor the women a chemise to put on." Many fled 
to Bayamo, — among them, Bishop Duranga, — and 
although it was reported that the Bayameses returned 
with them to the port when it became feasible to help 



DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE FRENCH 235 

them rebuild their homes, it is quite likely that some, 
like the bishop himself, remained in the inland city and 
added to its importance at the expense of Santiago's. 
All these depredations were laid to Captain Sores: 
despite the fact that the Frenchman who took Santiago 
spared the church there, whereas Sores elsewhere 
showed himself "a fine Lutheran." 

Havana heard of these and similar events in Porto 
Rico and St. Domingo with alarm that was justified: 
the French had promised to call there. Now the look- 
outs on Morro were faithful to their duty, and earnest 
patrols rode back and forth from Punta to the Almen- 
dares. Four pieces of artillery were located on a 
terraplene before Juan de Rojas' masonry houses to 
command both the harbor mouth and overland ap- 
proach to the town. This house of Rojas', the walls of 
the hospital and those of the unfinished church, were 
the only solid structures in the town excepting the 
worthless fort, the outer- and tower-gates of which 
were timber. Roll-call showed vecinos now available 
to fight in case of need, to number thirty including 
even the old and the ill. A petty force indeed, landing 
on the coast between Punta and the river, would find 
Havana at its mercy. "It is not within our powers," 
the settlers cried to the king, "to resist, but we can 
die doing our duty in your majesty's service." And 
die they did. On the morning of July 10, 1555, at about 
sunrise the watch on Morro headland ran up a signal 
that meant "A sail." The fort fired a shot and those 
men whose duty it was to garrison it assembled within, 
in command of the alcaide, Juan de Lobera. Governor 
Angulo appeared, on horseback; three more citizens, 
mounted, joined him. They could not agree as to 



236 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

what ship it might be which now appeared from behind 
the promontory. It passed the mouth of the harbor, 
continuing west. The governor sent two men on horse- 
back to follow alongshore and report. They returned, 
their horses stretched to full speed, with news that the 
brigantine had dropped anchor off Juan Guillen (San 
Lazaro) inlet and landed two boatloads of well-armed 
men, who were even then advancing on the settlement 
by way of a narrow path through the otherwise im- 
penetrable bush which surrounded it. 

In thirty minutes the French possessed the town. 
Jacques de Sores had kept his word, for he was captain 
in command of the invaders, and they were, like him- 
self, "Lutherans and heretics." His second in command 
was said to be a renegade native of the province of 
Navarre, named Juan de Plan, and two former residents 
of Havana (one a traitor Portuguese pilot) had guided 
him to the place. He expected to find treasure stored 
in the fort from vessels recently wrecked on Florida. 

Governor Angulo deserted the town, hustling his 
wife and children and belongings into safety. He made 
his way eventually to Guanabacoa, the Cubeno village 
across the bay. There other refugee residents of Ha- 
vana joined him but they came slowly for Guanabacoa 
was not the rendezvous they had agreed upon in plan- 
ning for precisely the contingency which had now pre- 
sented itself. 

Juan de Lobera with his fighting men, — Spaniards 
and halfbreeds and blacks, — shut himself up in his 
fort; he had four crossbowmen and six pieces of artil- 
lery. Some old and infirm men and a few women and 
children had taken refuge there with him. He de- 
spatched a letter to the governor upbraiding him for his 



DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE FRENCH 237 

desertion of the town and asking help which the gov- 
ernor promised by nightfall. 

Lobera bravely resisted attacks, which were three 
times repeated. With the two pieces of artillery that 
served the fort on the seaward side he prevented the 
brigantine which had landed the invaders and a larger 
ship which had now drawn up, from entering the port. 
He shot down the corsairs' flag from the hermitage 
near Juan de Rojas' house, where they had run it up. 
He replied with spirit to the enemy's demands that 
he surrender. Toward nightfall, however, they burned 
the gate in the walls around the fort and took up effect- 
ive positions along these. A little later they set the 
tower gate ablaze. In vain Lobera and another Span- 
iard and three negresses endeavored to extinguish the 
flames with water. They barely escaped with their 
lives to the adjacent quadrilateral terraplene. Nothing 
was saved from the tower but a little powder; provisions 
sufficient for about ten days' siege and all the alcaide's 
possessions save papers and certain valuables in a 
desk, were destroyed. The enemy again and again 
demanded his surrender, promising death with day- 
light to him and those with him, huddled without pro- 
tection on the exposed terraplene. He however hoping 
for relief sounded the bugle and beat the drum and 
fired his biggest gun to indicate to Governor Angulo, 
if he were within hearing with reinforcements, that the 
garrison was holding out, that the king's artillery was 
still in the possession of the king's loyal subjects. As 
dawn approached Lobera saw that he was surrounded 
and realized that he was helpless. The French were 
on every side, drawn up in good order. His people 
bade him die if he wanted to, but to spare them. Their 



238 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

arquebuses were burned out and their crossbows with- 
out cord. Two of his four crossbowmen were dead. 
An artilleryman held treacherous converse with the 
enemy, talking in German. Sores outside demanded 
to know if the commander of that garrison were mad. 
Lobera was forced to capitulate, but he did so on honor- 
able terms: the Frenchman promised him and those 
with him their lives and gave his word to protect the 
honor of the women. Lobera delivered up twenty or 
twenty-two persons, some negroes and two Spaniards 
having made away. The Frenchman mounted upon 
the terraplene and spread the colors of France over 
Lobera' s treasured artillery! He demanded booty, 
but there was none; out of Lobera's desk he got only 
an emerald ring and some silver plate. 

Excepting the women and children whom he soon 
released, Sores confined the prisoners he took with the 
fort to a lower chamber in Juan de Rojas' house where 
he had made his headquarters. To their number he 
added certain persons who had unluckily entered the 
port in small boats after he possessed it, and into the 
same cramped quarters he thrust about ten Portuguese 
who had been captured elsewhere. 

Meanwhile, Governor Angulo in Guanabacoa had 
assembled some ten Spaniards and about forty In- 
dians, and was returning to the relief of the fort when 
he received word of its fall, which occurred at daybreak 
on Thursday following the Frenchmen's entrance on 
Wednesday morning. On learning of this, Angulo fell 
back on Guanabacoa and negotiations began for the 
ransom of the town. 

Formal truce was agreed upon. The prisoners Sores 
had taken were permitted to go their ways about the 



DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE FRENCH 239 

town on the understanding that they must return to 
his headquarters each night. The French demanded 
thirty thousand pesos and a hundred loads of cazabi 
bread. The Spaniards offered three thousand ducats, — 
a sum which excited Sores' contempt. 

By the following Wednesday morning Angulo in 
Guanabacoa had mustered 35 Spaniards, 220 negroes 
and 80 Indians, armed with stones and clubs. Some 
came from as far away as Matanzas. Nine Spaniards 
were mounted. He knew that the French were scat- 
tered, some sleeping in houses of the town, some in their 
ships and some, quite at their ease, lay with their cap- 
tain in Juan de Rojas' house. Angulo planned to sur- 
prise them. His intention was to take that house. 
Unhappily the Indians he had with him indulged in a 
savage warwhoop at an inopportune moment and the 
French closed its door too soon. The Spaniards killed 
what French they found outside it, in the settlement, 
and surrounded the Rojas house, boasting what they 
had done and that they would complete their work 
on the French inside. Sores' indignation knew no 
bounds. One of the Frenchmen killed was a relative. 
He cried out that this attack was treachery and forth- 
with ordered that the prisoners he had in the lower 
chamber be stabbed and clubbed to death. Twenty- 
five or thirty (or perhaps only seventeen or eighteen) 
then and there expiated the governor's breach of the 
truce. This butchery done, Sores rushed upstairs and 
would have killed Lobera, but Lobera defended himself, 
declared the fault was not his, and another Frenchman 
disarmed the captain. From an upper window of the 
Rojas house, at Sores' order, Lobera bade the Spaniards 
withdraw. Angulo refused, vowing to retake the town 



240 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

at any cost, but when daylight came the Frenchmen 
saw the insignificance of Angulo's support. The enemy 
ships now in harbor brought their guns into action. 
Other Frenchmen who had been quartered in the her- 
mitage, and the captain himself and those with him in 
Rojas' house, came swarming forth. Angulo and the 
Spaniards fell back: their Indians and negroes broke 
and ran, and they retreated to Bainoa. Sores had left 
Lobera shut up in the room with his dead and dying 
compatriots and the Portuguese. On his return from 
pursuit of Angulo he released him : he had admired him 
since his defence of the fort, as a worthy enemy, but 
now he demanded a good ransom for him, the alter- 
native being a forced journey to France. Lobera's 
friends raised two thousand two hundred pesos and he 
was presently released. He went to Spain, to court and 
he carried with him extraordinary credentials in the 
shape of the town council's epic account of Sores' visi- 
tation. 

Through a Spaniard who had been Lobera's compan- 
ion in Sores' favor, negotiations were reopened for the 
ransom of the town, but in the end the Frenchman 
scorned the paltry thousand pesos offered and burned 
it to the ground. Nothing remained standing save the 
walls of the church and of the hospital. He maltreated 
the images on the altars and his soldiers made them- 
selves cloaks of the church vestments. He burned the 
boats he found in the harbor, — ail little craft. He 
journeyed out to neighboring estates, to destroy them, 
and negroes he captured, because no adequate ransom 
was forthcoming, he hung before Rojas' house. He 
went by night to Cojimar, hoping to find Angulo 
off guard there, but the governor was some leagues in- 



DESTRUCTIVE ACTIVITIES OF THE FRENCH 241 

land. He took soundings of Havana harbor and at 
midnight on August 5th, under a full moon, and with 
a fair wind, he sailed away. Havana was left " no better 
off than the Greeks left Troy." "God knows what He 
is about," the survivors exclaimed, bitterly, in reporting 
Havana's undoing to their king, but to their mind there 
was no explanation why no sudden tempest blew to 
destroy Sores, — Lutheran, heretic, desecrator of church 
and despoiler of faithful Catholic subjects of the Span- 
ish king. 

In their misery the settlers who remained dared to 
criticise not only the governor that king had provided, 
but to allege that the crown itself and its council were 
guilty of neglect in not furnishing them with arms 
which a garrison sufficient to their protection needed. 

On September 29th a patache manned by a dozen 
Frenchmen appeared off Havana. They represented 
themselves to be Spaniards, inquired into the state of 
affairs on land, and being advised truly, they entered 
the port and took possession of a caravel, with which 
they withdrew to Mariel harbor where their own ships 
were. On October 9th these put into Havana bay and 
the corsairs landed. They did not demolish the rebuild- 
ing which the disheartened settlers had begun but they 
visited outlying estates where they collected hides to 
add to the considerable cargo of these they already 
possessed. On October 23rd, 1555, they sailed away, 
leaving Havana utterly humiliated. 



CHAPTER XV 

Spain's reliance on military and naval force 
(1555 on) 

Como sabeis el puerto de la Villa de la Havana es la escala 
principal de las Indias adonde los navios que vienen de ellas asi 
del Nombre de Dios como de la Nueva Espana y otras partes 
para venir a estos reinos vienen a parar y es necesario y muy im- 
portante que el dicho puerto este siempre a recaudo y con gran 
defensa para que en caso que armada de Francia pasase a esas 
partes no pudiese tomar el dicho puerto ni hacer dano en el. . . . 
The Crown, A. de L, 79-4-2, Y 4, p. 29. 

Necesaria y importante cosa es que en el puerto de la Habana 
se haga unafuerza qual convenga. — The Crown, A. de I., 79-4-2, 
Y 4, p. 31 r. 

Now, in Europe, the Hapsburg aggregation of states 
at head of which had stood Charles V., fell asunder, and 
in 1556 the disillusioned emperor turned his back upon 
a world that had disappointed him, leaving the kingly- 
crowns of Spain and title to the Indies to his son Philip 
II., among other items of the greatest heritage Christen- 
dom had ever seen. A month after Philip had received 
them, the treaty of Vaucelles arranged a five year 
truce between Spain and France. Spain seemed to 
have succeeded in imposing restrictions on French 
activity in the new world for in this treaty it was 
specified that French subjects should not traffic, nav- 
igate or trade in the Spanish Indies without Spain's 
express license: " otherwise doing the contrary it shall 
be allowable to proceed against them as enemies." 

242 



SPAIN'S RELIANCE ON MILITARY AND NAVAL FORCE 243 

But the treaty of Vaucelles was soon broken; neither 
while intact did it have any effect upon conditions pre- 
vailing in the Caribbean. "The seas," Mazariegos 
wrote, "are full of corsairs," and, when one fresh from 
an attack on Cartagena appeared, "poorly indeed," 
he exclaimed, "do they keep the peace." 

In 1558, — France and Spain being at war again, — 
French corsairs did notable damage all through the 
Indies. Don Juan Tello de Guzman was sent from 
Spain with an armada against them and they played 
tag with him among the islands; he was "chagrined and 
agitated" by suspicion that friends ashore advised the 
enemy of all his movements. It was becoming evident 
that Spain must defend her exclusive title to the new 
world in a field where she did not comprehend that forts 
and armadas were of little avail against the mightier 
force which lies in the inevitable development of trade 
and commerce. In time, disregard of economic laws 
was to cost Spain her western empire, colony after 
colony, and Cuba the last. How narrowly it came to 
losing her this island three hundred years sooner than 
it did, events after 1556 at least suggest. 

Spain's whole position was untenable. At its base 
lay the idea that God through the pope had given the 
western hemisphere to the Catholic King, as His chosen 
instrument for its conversion to Catholicism, excepting 
that specified portion of it which appertained to his 
brother of Portugal. To dwell therein was a favor, 
vouchsafed by the Spanish crown to Spanish subjects, 
and only to chosen ones among them; to be allowed to 
do business in the New World was a privilege conferred 
by the Spanish crown, again only upon its subjects, 
under whatever costly and burdensome conditions 



244 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

the crown might impose. Unless especially licensed 
by the crown no foreigner had a right even to 
reside in Cuba, — certainly not to carry on trade there. 
Obviously, such theories as these could not be main- 
tained in fact, and yet Spain attempted to maintain 
them, insisting upon them against intelligent advice of 
eminent councillors who early urged that trade to the 
Indies be opened "to all the world," on payment of 
customs duties only. To maintain them Spain enacted 
as wise economic measures as she was capable of for- 
mulating, but her chief reliance was upon force, — force 
exerted upon the seas through her armadas and rep- 
resented in lesser degree upon the land by fortifications. 

It was, therefore, becoming that the man commis- 
sioned the last of March, 1555, to be governor of Cuba, 
should be a soldier: Diego de Mazariegos. Evidently 
there was dissatisfaction with the record which lawyer- 
governors (de Avila, Chaves and Angulo) had made, 
and certainly the settlers said they rejoiced to receive 
a fitting successor to Diego de Velazquez; but that the 
sword be properly tempered by proximity of the pen, 
Mazariegos was ordered to appoint to serve with him a 
lieutenant-governor who must be "a man of letters" 
(letrado). A Lie. Martinez was chosen for the post. 
Salaries of governor and lieutenant-governor were pay- 
able from Cuban revenues but, in default of these, by 
the royal officials resident in Castilla del Oro. 

With three black slaves in attendance on him, with a 
coat of mail, four arquebuses, four crossbows, three 
swords and still other weapons "for the defence of his 
person," among his luggage, Mazariegos set sail for 
Cuba in the summer of 1555. His ship was wrecked 
en route. Lieutenant-governor Martinez, his wife and 



SPAIN'S RELIANCE ON MILITARY AND NAVAL FORCE 245 

children, were drowned. Mazariegos escaped with his 
life and nothing more, reaching Havana on March 7th, 
1557. He immediately took Doctor Angulo's residencia; 
Angulo seems soon to have died; he was buried in the 
church at Havana. 

Mazariegos was the man for the job which con- 
fronted him, — had any one man been sufficient to 
handle it. Havana had no doubt been rebuilt since it 
was no great task to replace the palm-board, thatched 
bohios which Sores burned, in their enclosures set with 
tropical fruit trees that cast a grateful, though mosquito- 
infested shade. The church, however, stood desolate, 
its woodwork charred, its altar despoiled, and Juan de 
Rojas' houses had been only temporarily repaired. 
Life was strenuous, as the Havanese lived it amid these 
humble surroundings. Passing ships spewed forth in 
that hot harbor criminals and fortune-hunters out of 
Spain, broken adventurers "shot back from the con- 
tinents," — " delinquents from Peru and Mexico and 
other parts, those expelled for failing to fetch their 
wives, bankrupt merchants, women who have fled their 
husbands, friars in lay attire, vagabonds and rascals 
and soldiers and sailors who are deserters. . . . They 
fear neither God nor the king's justice!" A roystering, 
gaming, throat-slitting congregation, gambling for gold 
in bars, for pearls and emeralds rough from the mines, 
for neckchains and table plate, so that some swelled 
with easy gains, while others died heartbroken with 
loss! They knifed each other, posted defamatory 
placards, poisoned half-breed wives to make place for 
new ones, and burned an enemy's house now and then 
for diversion. Culprits sought asylum in the church; 
if haled forth to trial, legal procedure was still apt to 



246 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

stop short of a sentence especially if Governor Maza- 
riegos declared, with an oath, that a dead man had but 
received his deserts, and bade his kin refrain on penalty 
of becoming a feast for vermin of the town jail, from 
troubling him further in the matter. Francisco de 
Mazariegos, the governor's nephew; Francisco de 
Angulo, the former governor's son; and Gomez de 
Rojas Manrique, dare-devil younger brother of the 
venerable Juan de Rojas, were chief "bad men" of the 
community until young Angulo found it healthier to 
migrate into Mexico, and the governor banished Gomez 
de Rojas from the island, even, it was charged, express- 
ing the hope that the captain of the ship which took him 
off would maroon him on a desert key to die "an evil 
death." Another fate, however, awaited him. Maza- 
riegos himself set an example in laxity of morals by 
living years in union unblessed by the church with the 
eldest daughter of his predecessor; she was Dona 
Francisca de Angulo who bore him three children amid 
her mother's tearful protests. When the clergy objected 
to his conduct in this connection, the governor impugned 
the chastity of all of them, especially designating the 
bishop in the course of his remarks. After her mother's 
death, however, and when official investigation into his 
liaison was imminent, Mazariegos married the lady, de- 
claring he had considered her his wife all the time. 

Fearing lest the French seize Santiago, as soon as he 
had despatched Angulo, Mazariegos went to that port 
and remained there a year. He found the town without 
means of defence, and provided it with some pikes, 
arquebuses and powder, and four cannon which he left 
in charge of a captain. He departed from Santiago for 
Havana on January 16, 1558, for he heard that corsairs 



SPAIN'S RELIANCE ON MILITARY AND NAVAL FORCE 247 

had threatened to repeat Sores' exploit; instead on the 
eve of Corpus Christi (in June) after he had gone from 
there, French rovers took Santiago. So small had that 
settlement shrunk they refrained from burning it on 
receipt of 400 pesos. 

From mid-June to the first of August, two French 
corsairs with two captured ships hung off Havana and 
for forty-three days Mazariegos kept all its scanty 
population "on a war footing." Even negresses were 
compelled to aid the watch and rich citizens held horses 
in readiness for instant service. Mazariegos managed 
to get a warning to Pedro de las Roelas who was coming 
up with the plate fleet from Nombre de Dios and he 
beset the corsairs within sight of Havana harbor and 
took them. On subsequent occasions mimical visitors 
were fought or frightened off by Mazariegos' activities 
ashore. In March, 1561, a corsair attempted to enter 
Havana and when Pedro Menendez brought in a fleet of 
seven vessels early in April, another in his charge which 
trailed along late was captured. Its master, however, 
saved the hundred thousand ducats in silver which he 
had aboard by dropping the bullion into shallow water 
from whence (treasure hunters please take notice!) it 
was soon brought up again, after the Frenchmen had 
left the vicinity. On April 19th this same corsair chased 
another ship into Havana and fired two shots after her 
as she escaped. Pedro Menendez, still in port, was in- 
censed and sent forth two vessels of his fleet which 
pursued the rover for three days but the Frenchman 
made away via the Bahama channel. In view of events 
like these Mazariegos demanded artillery, — that he 
might as least reply to insults. Receiving none from 
Seville he was obliged to provide himself, — from bank- 



248 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

rapt ships, for instance, — with what cannon, powder 
and shot he could lay hand on. He in some sort re- 
paired the old fort and it was Havana's reliance for 
defence, though its ruined tower must still have con- 
stituted a fitting monument to Jacques Sores. 

Even before Sores' capture of Havana it had been 
recognized that there must be built there a fort ad- 
equate to defend the place, and properly situated. 
As early as 1551, plans may have been drawn and the 
intention entertained to commit the work to Juan de 
Rojas and to the alcaide Lobera. In 1556, perhaps be- 
cause Lobera was suspected at court of not having 
fulfilled his duty as against Sores, Geronimo Bust- 
amante de Herrera was commissioned to build such a 
fort as was needed and he made considerable prepara- 
tion to go to Havana, even assembling workmen early 
in 1557, but it seems he fell ill. In January, 1558, he 
was replaced by Bartolome Sanchez, engineer, named to 
execute plans delivered to him which were signed by 
Ochoa de Luyando, although it would seem likely that 
Sanchez drew them since to the copy he used he added 
his own name and the word fecit. These plans were 
closely followed in the erection of Fuerza as it stands 
to this day; they included also, however, plans for a 
wall about the town, and a copy of them has been 
preserved in the Archive of the Indies (54-1-32) . The 
viceroy of Mexico, who had been previously called upon 
to pay Lobera's and his artillerymen's salary, and to 
furnish money for the fort work, now actually sent 
twelve thousand pesos in gold to the royal officials who 
now resided at Havana, and it was disbursed on the joint 
signature of the governor and the engineer. 

Seville had difficulty in getting together the workmen 



SPAIN'S RELIANCE ON MILITARY AND NAVAL FORCE 249 

Sanchez needed. They demanded high pay and Seville 
at one time suggested the fort be built on contract; 
possibly bids were called for. Sanchez considered 
100 slaves necessary; the crown authorized a contract 
for thirty and Seville declared the order so small no 
trader desired to take it on. Not until July, 1558, 
although he was ready earlier, did Sanchez get away 
for Cuba with Seville's blessing expressed in the pious 
hope that the expenditure he represented might not be 
wasted money. The crown's attention had been called 
to the detail that no time was set within which the fort 
must be finished. 

Sanchez arrived in Havana in November, 1558, 
accompanied by fourteen or fifteen persons to be em- 
ployed on the work which began on December 1st, 
following. Sanchez located and opened a quarry, 
presumably the one near Guanabacoa; he found a 
spring of water in it. Twelve stone-cutters labored to 
prepare building blocks. A kiln was built to burn lime. 
Sanchez had brought implements with him, but no 
slaves appeared and now the demand was for from 
fifty to two hundred of them to hasten completion of 
the fort. The townspeople furnished about thirty 
negroes, perhaps under compulsion, for wages they 
evidently did not consider equivalent to the value of the 
slaves' labor when employed in cultivating food-crops 
to sell to passing fleets and armadas. The governor, 
being authorized to do so, brought up from Santiago 
some forty servicable " pieces" which had been con- 
fiscated for arriving there without proper shipping 
papers. They were set to work, men and women alike, 
and presently the governor released those blacks the 
residents had let out to Sanchez. Mazariegos also com- 



250 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

mitted to work on the fort fourteen robust Frenchmen 
of low degree whom he had captured off the north 
coast in the vicinity of Matanzas; one of these Sanchez 
killed in a fight and the others eventually escaped. 
The governor at one time "persuaded" the serviceable 
natives among those who dwelt in Guanabacoa to work 
in relays of a third of their number weekly, an arrange- 
ment which drew upon him a reprimand from the 
crown; he was commanded to pay them for what they 
had done and not to compel them to work against their 
will. Mazariegos also kept a keen eye out for vaga- 
bonds, — presumably the mixed breeds who worried the 
interior as tramps; he was authorized to compel these 
to render useful service to the community and he also 
forced all available occupants of Havana's jail to work 
on the fort. 

As erection of the fort progressed Mazariegos visited 
it in person continuously to assure progress. He used 
bad language and threatened blows when it moved 
slowly or not to his liking. His contemporaries in- 
formed the crown that the governor carried no other 
thought in mind night or day than the completion of 
Fuerza. 

Sanchez had agreed that the site occupied by the 
houses of Juan de Rojas and by others near them was 
indeed the proper position for the fort (see frontispiece). 
He was specifically empowered to purchase the Rojas' 
houses (which their owner had not been permitted to 
repair since Sores partially destroyed them), and any 
others needed; after a commission had appraised their 
value a surprisingly large number of properties which 
the engineer listed as necessary were expropriated. I 
believe they covered not only the present site of Fuerza 



SPAIN'S RELIANCE ON MILITARY AND NAVAL FORCE 251 

but also the plaza de armas and even more ground to 
north and east. To judge by the prominence of the 
owners of some of them, — Juan de Ynestrosa, Alonso 
Sanchez del Corral, Diego de Soto and the priest Andres 
de Nis, and the detail that Ynestrosa's house was 
roofed with tile, — the vicinity of Fuerza must have 
been the first preferred residential district of Havana: 
as was indeed probable considering the breeze and the 
view it commanded, then even better than now. It was 
years before some of the owners were from the con- 
tinent, paid the ducats at which their houses and lots 
were valued. Doubtless some did not give immediate 
possession and certainly some of the buildings bought 
were not razed: for instance, that purchased at this 
time of Ysabel Nieta was the governor's residence until 
1579, at least. 

Despite suspicion any student of the documents must 
entertain that this transaction was made pleasant be- 
cause profitable to those concerned, the engineer as- 
cribed to it part of the unpopularity which accrued to 
him in Havana. Certainly the crown received adverse 
criticism of him from every quarter, to which Seville 
contributed the information that Sanchez was a strange 
character with whom nobody could get on. The gover- 
nor insisted that he was building the fort too high (a 
hundred feet) and that he proposed so to place the 
artillery that with favoring wind an enemy vessel might 
enter the harbor unscathed. His officials declared that 
he fomented discord and wasted money; his workmen 
stated that they knew him well and that he was a devil 
in human form whom they hoped never to see again 
when, in the summer of 1560, Sanchez received orders 
to commit continuance of the fort work to Mazariegos 



252 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

and return to Spain when the governor should com- 
mand. 

The royal officials demanded an accounting of the 
dismissed engineer for moneys they alleged he had mis- 
spent in using workmen and materials to erect houses 
in town on his own account; he vanished from Havana 
without rendering it to them. Sanchez's only defence 
against criticisms of him had been that his letters 
showed him more occupied in building the fort than 
in reporting his enemies to the king, and when in the 
following December he presented himself at court he 
succeeded in giving the impression there that he had 
been prematurely discharged. For some time there- 
after he exerted himself exceedingly to collect the salary 
due him for what services he was permitted to render 
and I believe that later (1566?) he reappeared in Havana 
to inspect the fort work. 

Now more money was needed. It was impressed 
upon the crown that unless funds were kept in hand 
work on Fuerza must stop since the residents of Cuba 
had not a blanca to contribute toward it. Mazariegos 
suggested that he and the royal officials be authorized 
to help themselves from crown funds aboard passing 
fleets, as might be necessary to keep the work going. 
Mazariegos offered his head to the executioner if a penny 
were misapplied with his knowledge: after Sanchez's 
removal he alone signed for disbursements until, in the 
summer following, the matter was placed in the hands 
of the treasurer and accountant. Mazariegos' sugges- 
tion was not accepted but Mexico was bidden to send 
6000 pesos more for the work. 

At the time that Sanchez left Fuerza a third or more 
of the foundations had been dug and some four thousand 



SPAIN'S RELIANCE ON MILITARY AND NAVAL FORCE 253 

stone blocks cut. Despite the fact that the governor 
had assured the king that the two master workmen, 
named Claros and Ableztra, were competent to con- 
tinue the work, given the plans and the site as deter- 
mined (and they made formal oath that they were 
competent!), he immediately requested that a judicious 
man be sent from Seville lest either of these two die 
as had five others of those who came with Bartolome 
Sanchez. 

Eighty or a hundred negroes to work on the fort were 
so surely expected now that crops to feed them were 
planted, at first near the quarry, and later, because that 
soil proved sterile, out beside the Almendares River, — 
near an estate of Juan de Ynestrosa's, as the critical 
did not fail to observe. A delay, however, occurred for 
in all the year following neither the judicious man 
wanted to take charge of the work, nor the negroes 
arrived. 

On June 11th, 1562, however, Francisco Calona, 
recommended by the master builder of Seville's cathe- 
dral as able and good-tempered, arrived in Havana at the 
end of an eight months' voyage. The royal officials re- 
gretted to observe that he had been drawing a good 
salary during all that time. Calona continued to draw 
it at the rate of 800 ducats per annum through a long 
and hearty life. No time being set in which he was to 
finish Fuerza he seems to have felt no obligation to 
finish it at all, and in his ripe old age, thirty years later, 
he could still think of much that remained to do to it. 

Still more money had arrived from Mexico, — making 
the total appropriation to 1562, thirty thousand pesos, 
of which Calona found nineteen thousand already spent. 
He began at once to build with the cut stone blocks he 



254 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

found ready on the site. On March 29, 1563, it was 
reported to the crown that Fuerza's walls were as high 
as a man's head despite the fact that Mazariegos had 
compelled Calona to undo at his own expense and to 
replace properly part of the work in which the governor 
insisted he had departed from the original plan. Late 
that same year forty-eight slaves arrived from Car- 
tagena for the fort work. Money again running out, 
in December the crown ordered Mexico to furnish eight 
thousand pesos more. This amount was slow to ar- 
rive and to prevent the work from stopping Mazariegos 
advanced pay to masters and men from certain crown 
funds he happened to have on hand. 

During the summer of 1563 Mazariegos built a 
masonry tower on Morro headland. It was almost 
thirty-five feet high; its top was a little over eighty- 
three feet above the level of the sea which fretted the 
gray rock on which it stood at the harbor entrance. It 
was white in color and visible for eight leagues at sea. 
Its purpose was to guide friendly ships into port and 
to enable look-outs, — 'Sometimes petty malefactors were 
assigned to this lonely service, — 'to discover unfriendly 
vessels ere they approached too near. The tower cost 
two hundred pesos and the crown bade Havana reim- 
burse herself for the money so expended by reimposing 
a very unpopular anchorage tax which had just been 
abolished in response to the city's earnest entreaties. 

Meanwhile, the Spanish had been making still further 
attempts to master Florida (meaning the North Amer- 
ican continent), in order to forestall French designs to 
establish a colony there. Such a colony would be most 
valuable to the French as a base for operations against 
Spanish finances as represented by the two convoyed 



SPAIN'S RELIANCE ON MILITARY AND NAVAL FORCE 255 

fleets a year laden with bullion from the continents 
which now regularly threaded their way homeward to- 
gether via the Bahama channel. A good position in 
Florida might give the French such command of that 
channel that not a vessel could return to Spain " with- 
out their seizing it." 

Mexico, now, not Cuba, was called upon to furnish 
ill-starred expeditions into Florida. Fray Luis Cancer 
tried persuasion on the natives there and ended his 
career under a war club. Don Luis de Velasco sent forth 
Don Tristan de Luna, to conquer the country not by 
war but by settlement and trade on a basis of equity. 
The only effect on Cuba of this expedition was to create 
a transient market for supplies. Its treasurer, Antonio 
de Velazquez, for instance, put into Havana in Novem- 
ber, 1559, with two frigates, and the governor had to 
find an additional vessel to enable him to carry off the 
three hundred head of cattle, horses, mules, and bread 
and meat, which he purchased. Later, informed that 
de Luna's men were starving, Mazariegos despatched to 
them two frigates with provisions acquired without au- 
thority on the crown's account, an expenditure which 
auditors disputed. Velazquez had left sick Spaniards 
and Indians in Havana's hospital in evidence that 
Florida had not changed its character since Narvaez' 
and de Soto's time, and like them, de Luna failed. 
Similarly, documents of the time show vessels com- 
manded by Angel de Villafafie, governor of Florida, 
passing in and out of Havana, — only to augment the 
population of Cuba by perhaps a hundred and twenty- 
five deserters who with their arms made off into the 
interior. Mazariegos reported that he had no force 
available to capture such a body of men, nor is it logical 



256 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

to suppose that he made any desperate attempt to do 
so or to prevent them from settling down in Cuba if in 
Cuba they chose to settle, for Cuba needed population 
and there are complaints that Mazariegos was keeping 
what it had by methods described as tyrannical by 
those persons who, although they had committed no 
crime, they said, he would nevertheless not permit to 
leave the country. Mazariegos had a poor opinion of 
the degree of efficiency which prevailed under Villa- 
fane's command. Philip, informed of Villafafie's fiasco, 
expressed himself as much displeased and announced 
that he desisted from all attempt to establish settlement 
in Florida. He gave as his reason lack of means to 
do so, but unquestionably the opinion prevailed that 
since Spaniards could not maintain themselves there, 
neither could the French hope to establish a colony. 

As early as February 13, 1563, Philip was aware how 
falsely founded was his reliance on their inability, for 
on that date he informed Mazariegos that the French 
had actually made a settlement at the very place, — • 
Santa Elena, or Port Royal, — where Villafane had been 
the latest Spaniard to fail. Mazariegos received this 
news, — and news it was, to him, — In October. The 
following April, responding to what he understood the 
crown's interest in this matter to be, he commissioned 
Hernan Manrique de Rojas to go in a frigate with 
twenty-five men for crew, to investigate into this 
French settlement, and to destroy it, if he found his 
strength sufficient to the undertaking. In July Hernan 
Manrique returned with tidings that the French settle- 
ment had been deserted. He brought with him as 
evidence of his story a French youth as a prisoner, and 
the stone post marked with the letter R and the date 



SPAIN'S RELIANCE ON MILITARY AND NAVAL FORCE 257 

1561 which " vain emblem," as Lowery calls it, "France 
had erected to bear witness to her supremacy in South 
Carolina." Mazariegos sent this stone to Seville. 

Mazariegos appreciated the importance of preventing 
the French from establishing a base for operations 
against Spanish shipping in the New World. As it 
was, their vessels were dangerously numerous in Cuban 
waters. They sought and took supplies where they 
found them. Worse yet, they not only imperilled life 
and property of individuals, and, in time, Spanish 
sovereignty, but contact with their heretical religious 
doctrines must be officially held to jeopardize the im- 
mortal souls of all they contaminated by their prox- 
imity. Mazariegos had been feeling that he was old 
(although he was little over forty years) ; but thought 
of French audacity at Santa Elena stirred in him desire 
to go north in person to dissipate Calvinist hopes en- 
tirely, for, even while Hernan Manrique was sailing 
off with souvenirs of the abandoned first French colony, 
Laudonniere had established a second one. To oblit- 
erate this, however, was a service destiny reserved for 
that bold captain-general whom Mazariegos praised for 
maintaining order in his armada, — Pedro Menendez de 
Aviles. 



CHAPTER XVI 

INVINCIBLE DEVELOPMENT (TO 1565) 

" Anuncian que van a las Indias a mercadear." 

As said, Spain's policies toward the New World were 
untenable. France would not " consent to be deprived 
of the sea and of the heavens," and opined that "God 
had not created those lands (of the Indies) solely for 
Castilians." The ports of France "from Bordeaux 
to Brittany and Normandy " teemed with ships that 
knew the extended coastline of Cuba better than any 
which frequented the Guadalquivir to tie tamely at the 
docks of the casa de la contratacion and pay there, 
heavily, for the privilege of doing under the law a busi- 
ness which was more profitably conducted outside it. 
When these French merchants, enemies though they 
were of Spanish state and church as well, presented 
themselves, proffering linens and silks, to barter for 
hides in Cuba's quiet inlets and along her hidden 
rivers, the Catholic King's mandate that such traffic 
must not be, was as ineffectual to prevent it as his 
official theory that it jeopardized their immortal souls 
was insufficient to frighten his subjects out of risking 
eternal damnation while driving a satisfactory bargain 
with heretics. In Spain at this time religious fanaticism 
and the Inquisition revived. 

As early as 1527 an English merchant ship presented 
itself off Santo Domingo demanding the opportunity to 

258 



INVINCIBLE DEVELOPMENT (TO 1565) 259 

sell its cargo there on strength of a treaty, presumably 
that one existing between England and the House of 
Burgundy since 1495. Santo Domingo's alcaide greeted 
the visitor with a few solid shots. Between that date 
and the famous voyages of Hawkins who cited the 
same treaty to legitimize his ventures, I have no doubt 
that other traders of his nationality got better wel- 
come among Spanish settlers in less closely super- 
vised ports of the Indies. For many years the Portu- 
guese engaged quietly in unchronicled traffic through 
lonely harbors, along unwatched rivers; in 1540 Se- 
ville complained to the crown that of twenty-five or 
thirty caravels carrying slaves to La Espanola, San 
Juan de Puerto Rico and Cuba, not more than one or 
two landed their return cargoes of sugars and hides in 
Seville; the rest sought Portugal's ports. For this 
state of affairs the crown roundly berated the casa de 
la contratacion; and presently, with just as much re- 
medial effect, he commanded the governor of Cuba 
to embargo French vessels presenting themselves for 
business in Cuban ports! 

"They advertise that they are going to the Indies 
to do business." The character of the corsair had 
changed: no longer always an enemy, intent solely on 
hostilities, as early as 1549 he was recognized in Spain 
in his far more dangerous capacity of peaceable friendly 
trader. The very word acquired the meaning it has to 
this day upon the signboards of Seville: Cosario, an 
importer of foreign goods, and a man especially to be 
watched by customs officials! In that year, — 1549, — 
it was planned to send out three armed vessels, two of 
them caravels, not to protect merchantmen, but to 
hunt traders: i. e., force of arms was employed to com- 



260 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

bat tendencies of economic development which are 
not to be successfully so encountered. 

After 1561 communications between the peninsula 
and her colonies settled into a system of two convoyed 
fleets yearly, sailing from Seville on schedule over 
fixed routes. This system of convoyed fleets, intended 
to protect business, did so but at the same time ham- 
pered it, for those fleets sailed no faster than the slowest 
ship among them and in times of real danger they did 
not venture forth at all. Consequently, Cuba's lawful 
sources of supply not only of luxuries but of actual 
necessities of life became uncertain and insufficient; 
and in corresponding degree individual vessels no 
matter what then nationality (the Spaniards them- 
selves evaded their own laws) were more warmly wel- 
comed than before in the unguarded ports by the needy 
population of the surrounding country. More than one 
high official informed the Catholic King that it was 
necessity which drove his subjects to barter with heretic 
enemies of the crown. 

The people in Cuba hardly produced food enough to 
maintain life in them : and that on a coarse and meager 
diet. They did not produce any portion, it would 
seem, of their clothing (even shoes was a large item of 
importation). How wretched was their situation es- 
pecially in the interior Mazariegos had discovered 
when, leaving Havana in charge of Juan de Rojas as his 
representative, he set out for Santiago on October 1, 
1556, on the only tour of inspection he ever made 
through the island. He found the white population to 
consist, he said, of perhaps two hundred Spaniards; 
they were so poor that had he been willing to grant 
the leave they asked to go elsewhere they would have 



INVINCIBLE DEVELOPMENT (TO 1565) 261 

reduced even that small number. Bishop Bernaldino 
de Villalpando, succeeding Bishop Duranga deceased, 
declared that the Indians were "as though they had 
never seen Christians" and the Spaniards themselves 
"died like barbarians." They can have lived very little 
better. In 1559 the crown sought to raise money (as 
had been done in 1530) by way of letters requesting 
loans addressed to prominent citizens: not a colonist 
responded, their excuse being "the poverty of the land 
and the scanty profits they obtained in it." At the 
same time the crown ordered certain clerkships sold 
which should have been profitable sources of fees: for 
only one, and that in Bayamo, did any bidder appear, 
and it sold for a hundred ducats. 

Far from producing revenues for the crown, Cuba 
had become a burden of considerable expense to Tierra 
Firme and Mexico. Situados, — appropriations payable 
by royal officials out of funds originating there, to meet 
salaries (like Lobera's) and the heavy cost of the fort 
work, were now matters of regular course. Customs 
revenues dwindled, not only because comparatively 
little merchandise arrived but because the fleets called 
first at continental ports (at Nombre de Dios, for in- 
stance, and at Vera Cruz), and their royal officials made 
haste to collect on cargoes entire; later what part of 
these was intended for Cuba presented itself with a cer- 
tificate that duty had been paid elsewhere and was 
therefore not to be collected a second time when the 
goods landed in the island. The rate of import duty 
was raised from 73^ to 10% and when, in 1562, the 
crown ordered duty collected at the port of actual 
destination of the merchandise, from 11,128 reales in 
1559, 6,239 reales in 1561, 3,219 reales in 1562, receipts 



262 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

in Havana rose to 73,669 reales for the period between 
August, 1563, and December 6, 1564. To receive this 
money a factor became for a time again necessary: 
the office had become a sinecure and was, on Mazariegos' 
suggestion, abolished (1562), its few duties being merged 
with those of the treasurer and the accountant. These 
royal officials had, at the governor's bidding, removed 
their residence from Santiago to Havana. While they 
had been at Santiago their duties in Havana had been 
performed there by an alcalde and two councilmen; 
presumably the arrangement was the same in other 
settlements. They now requested that they be repre- 
sented at Santiago by an alcalde and councilmen to 
which the king agreed on August 1, 1561. 

The rate of duty payable at Seville on merchandise 
from the Indies had been raised from 7}4% to 15%. 
Cuba immediately protested and secured (1566) a 
special reduction (after 1569) to 7}4% on hides, which 
was of real value to her, and on sugar, which meant 
nothing since the island was producing none that I can 
discover. This rate prevailed, the concession which 
maintained it being renewed from time to time; neither 
did zealous accountants succeed in augmenting it by 
the more or less fictitious " removal tax" of 2}4% which 
had always been considered as included in the duty paid 
at Seville. There was no export tax on Cuban products. 
Cuba did business with other colonies in goods which 
originated in Spain; Seville complained that this inter- 
fered with the fleets' trade and it was (1565) forbidden 
to make such reshipments of Spanish goods out of 
colonies into which originally imported, but this was a 
general restriction, and it aroused such general pro- 
test that it was removed. Cuba was also reassured of 



INVINCIBLE DEVELOPMENT (TO 1565) 263 

free entry for her products into ports of other settle- 
ments for another six years (after January, 1568) 
and the residents of the island remained exempt from 
payment of duty on goods brought by themselves into 
Cuba from Spain for their own use and the use of their 
households. 

At the same time the crown became more insistent 
that what remained to Caesar must be paid to him. 
Diego Lopez Duran went to court in the fall of 1567, 
representing Havana especially. He was not notably 
successful in obtaining what that city asked: a loan of 
two thousand ducats for the Chorrera ditch work, 
appropriation of all fines levied for minor offences to the 
hospital for ten years, three hundred ducats to be 
spent to arm the citizens (still fretful under obligation to 
equip themselves at their own expense), etc.; but in- 
structions issued to him as accountant and corollary 
provisions represent a reform in the collection of 
revenues throughout Cuba. Duran was ordered to 
become accurate and determined in collecting from the 
country all moneys due the crown; careful records were 
to be kept, in a three-keyed box along with cash on 
hand, which was in the treasurer's custody; cash on 
hand was to be sent to Spain as often as the governor 
thought available ships safe to convey it. The royal 
officials were now forbidden to engage in any business; 
the king remarked that to obtain their entire attention 
he paid them adequate salaries. In accordance, pre- 
sumably, with an intention to live up to the spirit of 
these instructions, Duran asked and the crown appro- 
priated two hundred ducats for Havana's first custom 
house, an amount which proved insufficient; in 1567 
the king ordered the house built as it should be even 



264 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

though it exceeded the appropriation. The accountant 
foresaw trouble in collecting tithes (to collect them had 
become part of the royal officials' duty) from the 
Bayamo district, where ships' manifests showed an 
exportation of hides far in excess of those on which 
tithes were paid; the governor of the island was in- 
structed to report ways and means to assure collection 
of one hide in twenty, for if such collection could be 
assured that source of revenue could be farmed out for a 
lump sum per annum as collection of customs duties had 
once been. I think collection of tithes was never 
generally let out, nor locally for any long period. Duran 
intimated that masters and men, of the ships composing 
the fleets, engaged in smuggling and the captains gen- 
eral of the armadas were ordered not to prevent the 
royal officials from collecting duties due to the crown. 
Later, in 1572 and 1573, the royal officials were further 
strengthened in their powers: they were in complete 
charge of crown receipts and expenditures in the island. 
Alguaciles (sheriffs) were ordered to assist them. The 
only appeal against them was to the governor. The 
king was particularly insistent that merchandise which 
foreigners shipped in the fleets without proper entry 
on the manifests or through third persons without per- 
mits must be confiscated and the offenders punished. 
It must be borne in mind that there was an important 
colony of "English merchants" at Seville. The royal 
officials were expected to appear aboard each entering 
vessel, in person or in their representatives, as became 
active customs officers. Out of their entire willingness 
to do so arose friction with governors whom they too 
often found had preceded them. Mutual charges of 
"graft" were frequently exchanged. 



INVINCIBLE DEVELOPMENT (TO 1565) 265 

Bayamo was certainly the center of the most pros- 
perous region. Documents of the time show that cattle 
had thrived and so multiplied there and through the 
center of the island that herds roamed wild and were 
hunted and killed without regard for any consideration 
of ownership. Andres de Parada, thirty years a res- 
ident of the Bayamo district, owner of famous ranges 
at Yara and elsewhere, complained that persons who 
owned few or no cattle, chased his and stripped them of 
their hides and tallow, and after a prohibition from the 
audiencia had proven of no avail to prevent this, he 
procured a royal cedula forbidding persons who owned 
no herds to hunt any. 

Alonso Sanchez del Corral had some three hundred 
head of cattle on a ranch near Sancti Spiritus and he 
sought to have Parada's cedula (which was general in its 
terms) applied to the country there. The Spaniards of 
Sancti Spiritus and the Cubenos of Trinidad complained 
that this was undue restriction, because, they said, 
between Puerto Principe and Havana there was no 
other settlement of any sort and the country was full of 
ownerless cattle which all had considered themselves 
free to kill as they could. The hides so obtained were 
their principal, not to say, sole source of income. The 
crown ordered that convenient boundaries be drawn 
for the protection of tame herds, free hunting of wild 
cattle to continue outside them as before. Accord- 
ingly, Mazariegos assigned to Sanchez del Corral a 
circle of land three leagues in radius from its center (at 
Las Sabanas de la Habanana), title to which he held 
during the king's pleasure only. He and his heirs, 
however, considered that range too small for the herds 
they had, when these were rounded up from Sancti 



266 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Spiritus and Trinidad, and they managed to augment 
their pasture; in 1572 after some difficulty, Alonso 
Velazquez de Cuellar, Sanchez del Corral's nephew, 
obtained the king's authority to use for grazing, lands 
included in a circle of five, not three leagues radius. 
The three league radius was, nevertheless, the usual 
measure for ranches (hatos). This is the first specific 
mention of a circular land grant which I have seen 
among Cuban papers at Seville; it is an example of a 
system which caused endless trouble in Cuba. 

Bayamo was the most prosperous region in the island 
because it was the most deeply implicated in unlawful 
business with most active corsairs. The Portuguese, 
who came up with slaves and wines, — the Genoese, — 
and especially the French laden with silks and linens, 
were so welcome along the south-east coast of Cuba 
that in 1565, of ten ships that were cleared from that 
port and the ports of Cape Cruz, Manzanilla and 
Bayamo (with 44,000 hides, woods, etc.) two only went 
to Spain, or so the king was informed by Pedro de 
Quesada, representing the city of Santiago. Francisco 
de Banderas, Mazariegos' lieutenant in Santiago, was 
accused of entertaining French merchants in his house. 

The audiencia of Santo Domingo sent many a judge 
into eastern Cuba to investigate into these illicit trade 
relations. Santiago and Bayamo complained that the 
judges were less obnoxious than corsairs of the old 
school, only in that they did not burn the towns after 
they had carried off every portable valuable as salary 
and fees and fines! On arrival these judges assumed 
precedence over all local authorities, despatched justice 
in a manner not palatable to them, and bundled citizens 
and papers of long and costly law suits off to Santo 



INVINCIBLE DEVELOPMENT (TO 1565) 267 

Domingo for the audiencia to pass sentence. One par- 
ticularly persistent visitor of the sort was Judge Luis 
de Soto who had already overstayed his commission 
when the council of Santiago, declaring that he re- 
mained solely to transact business of his own, not the 
court's which sent him, invited him to betake himself 
to Santo Domingo to report. He went, — when he was 
ready to go, — carrying some thousand pesos in gold 
with him; he was shipwrecked en route but nevertheless 
arrived, whereupon the audiencia sent over Bernabe de 
Hortegon, close kin of his and of the president of the 
court, to deal with the citizens of Santiago for having 
disrespectfully urged his departure! The audiencia had 
also attempted to name a factor in the east; Governor 
Mazariegos had refused to recognize him and the crown 
had declared the audiencia devoid of authority in such 
matter, though it appears that the court's appointee did 
collect moneys. The royal officials at Havana objected 
to having what funds Santiago and Bayamo produced, 
swept off to Santo Domingo while work on Fuerza 
slacked for lack of funds from Mexico and their own 
salaries were not promptly paid. The king and the 
council for the Indies were divided between conviction 
that the settlers of eastern Cuba were flagrantly break- 
ing the law in their traffic with foreigners, some of whom 
did business under papers of vecindad (established 
residence) granted them by too lenient councils, and the 
equally well- justified conviction that the judges the 
audiencia sent over to pass on their cases were ex- 
ploiting the situation. 

When Pedro Menendez reported the existing state of 
affairs in Cuba to the crown, a cedula was issued bidding 
Mazariegos enforce the law against trade with corsairs. 



268 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

How deep-rooted, how widely extended, was the evil 
which he saw and appreciated, and how very difficult 
to extirpate, Menendez himself was presently to dis- 
cover in the course of surprising experiences. 

The citizens of Havana complained that Mazariegos 
suppressed the offices of alcaldes ordinarios; it seems he 
was expected to appoint them yearly and failed to do 
so even when the audiencia of Santo Domingo reminded 
him of his duty. Evidently popular election of these 
officials had been abandoned on the ground that it 
occasioned bribery and disorder; in other settlements 
than Havana, apparently, the town councils now chose 
the alcaldes. The citizens declared that Mazariegos' 
design in overlooking the appointment of alcaldes was 
to prevent the settlers from enjoying any independent 
representation before the crown. They charged that 
the city council was Mazariegos' subservient instru- 
ment, — a body made up of his friends and dependents, — 
and certainly all its communications to the king were 
pleasant echoes of the governor's opinions. They ac- 
cused Mazariegos of tampering with what mail service 
there was, alleging that he took possession of letters 
intended for his superiors, and prevented persons from 
going to Spain whom he thought might make unfavor- 
able report there as to his administration. It was said 
that Mazariegos became intolerable after Bartolome 
Sanchez asked that a judge be sent from Santo Do- 
mingo to investigate his conduct and the king refused 
to permit the court to despatch one. Mazariegos him- 
self in 1563 asked for six months' leave of absence that 
he might present himself at court: "I am growing old 
and ill," he wrote, "and poorer every day." In the 
spring of 1565 he heard that Garcia Osorio de Sandoval 



INVINCIBLE DEVELOPMENT (TO 1565) 269 

had been named to succeed him. He asked the king 
to order that law suits be not accumulated against him 
during the process of his residencia and Philip, mindful 
of his services, issued a cedula to Osorio commanding 
that Mazariegos be not unduly " molested." It was 
therefore a foregone conclusion that nothing would come 
of the investigation into his administration which, 
however, Osorio's letrado lieutenant-governoi , the Lie. 
Cabrera, made with all due formality. It was not until 
the spring of 1567 that Osorio was ready to send the 
results of it, — three bulky hide-bound tomes, — to Spain. 
Mazariegos remained in Havana some years after his 
retirement from office. He had desired to be made 
alcaide of Fuerza, and later he did serve his king again 
as governor of Venezuela. 



CHAPTER XVII 

PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVILES (1565-1567) 

For Christ our Lord, and the Catholic King, — and the 
plate fleets of Seville! 

In 1564 Frenchmen who said they had deserted the 
French settlement in Florida to escape hard labor 
there, and were endeavoring to return to France, took 
possession of Porcallo's "key" and of a vessel lying in 
its harbor. The following year corsairs, who said they 
too were from that same settlement, in seizing a Spanish 
merchantman out of Santo Domingo for Santiago de 
Cuba, killed a judge who was a passenger aboard. These 
were not the only incidents of the sort. It was intoler- 
able that heretics be permitted to maintain a nest in 
Florida from which to sally forth to work such damage 
on Spanish interests. The Florida settlement threat- 
ened grave danger to the Spanish plate fleets and so to 
Spanish government finances. Moreover, some persons 
(among them Pedro Menendez) had long believed that 
it was the intention of the French to arouse the negro 
slaves of the various Spanish settlements to revolt 
against their masters, assuring them freedom when 
French sovereignty should supersede Spanish! Most 
secretly, that the blacks might not comprehend that 
they were feared, Menendez had discussed this danger 
with Angulo when he was governor of Cuba, with the 
alcaide Lobera and with Juan de Rojas. 

270 



PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVILES (1565-1567) 271 

The council for the Indies, seeing the situation in its 
large light, now reminded the king that through the 
pope he had a God-given right to the land the French 
had dared to occupy, — that Spaniards had many times 
taken formal possession of it for him (though unfor- 
tunately not all the records could readily be found), — 
and urged him to expel the invaders lest, being left to 
take deep root, they prove the undoing of Spanish su- 
premacy and of true religion in all the new world. 

Accordingly, Pedro Menendez de Aviles was made 
adelantado of Florida on March 20th, 1565. He was 
also captain-general of the armada "to guard the coasts 
and ports of Indies." 

This man had long served his king well, especially in 
the new world, and years before this he had conceived 
large policies: as early as 1553, " captain of his own ship 
and experienced on the sea and in navigation of these 
waters," he had conferred with the viceroy of Mexico 
and with the audiencia of Santo Domingo upon this 
very point of the necessity of driving the French from 
the Caribbean, and his views had reached the crown. 
While a prisoner among them a year or so before he had 
been a witness to their acquisitions of sugar and hides. 
Since then Menendez had risen high in the king's serv- 
ice, to be " captain-general to guard the route to Indies," 
under which title in 1562-63 he saw merchantmen safely 
across to the colonies and home again just as on previous 
occasions he had escorted other fleets of traders. 

Now as adelantado of Florida and captain-general of 
the armada "to guard the coasts and ports of Indies," 
it was given him as his mission to clean the heretic 
French not only from that land but also, as he had long 
desired to see done, from the seas aroundabout Spain's 



272 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

new world settlements that his Most Catholic Maj- 
esty's subjects resident in them and travelling to and 
fro among them, might be safe from danger to their 
lives, from depredations to their property and from 
damning contamination in their spiritual part. He 
represented, that is, Spain's determination to execute 
by force her impracticable laws framed to make the 
western hemisphere the religious monopoly of Catholi- 
cism, the political, financial monopoly of the Spanish 
crown, and the economic monopoly of the port of 
Seville. On land Menendez met with some measure of 
success; by sea he failed, because to accomplish all his 
mission especially in its economic aspect was beyond 
human possibility. 

Pedro Menendez de Aviles was a good sailor, a good 
Spaniard and a good Catholic. He was able and fear- 
less in his calling; loyal to his king and to his purpose, 
not to be bought by friends or by enemies; and he was 
a religious fanatic. "I have vowed a vow to our Lord 
Jesus Christ that all in this world he shall give me or I 
shall have, obtain and acquire shall be expended in 
spreading the gospel in this land (of Florida) among its 
natives, and so," he wrote to Philip, "do I promise 
your majesty." 

His character may not be condemned at this later 
date because he was the very embodiment of the spirit 
of his people, of his time. Historians of those Calvinists 
in Florida who presently felt his blade's edge when he 
soaked the site of French settlements in "the flowery 
land" with their blood, have pictured him as guilty of 
treacherous, unnecessary cruelty; and his compatriots 
have not succeeded in defending him as documents in 
their possession show that he deserves. Menendez did 



PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVILES (1565-1567) 273 

his duty honorably as it was laid down to him and as 
he saw it; and always among his own he carried himself 
like a master of men, dispensing justice on land and sea 
with a heavy hand, but not regardless of equity. For 
ten years he passed in and out of Cuba's ports, — power- 
ful, a portent to all opposition, the dominant figure of 
the decade, here to-day and gone to-morrow but certain 
to return. Who has seen an eagle cross, high in air 
over a mountain valley, intent on serious business at 
his journey's end, recalling how his very shadow, ap- 
proaching, sent smaller fowl scurrying to safeguard 
themselves and their pettier affairs, will realize the re- 
lation between Cuban matters and Florida's adelantado 
during the years that Pedro Menendez de Aviles was 
engaged in his effort to obliterate the French from the 
new world and with them the menace to Spanish sov- 
ereignty there which he correctly believed them to 
constitute, and in his supplementary effort to establish 
Spanish settlements where theirs had been. 

In Cuba Menendez interpreted his instructions to 
guard the ports of the Indies in a manner not com- 
patible with Governor Garcia Osorio's ideas of the 
duties and dignity of the position conferred upon him 
as successor to Diego de Mazariegos. Osorio had ar- 
rived at his post on September 18, 1565, and had been 
formally received next day. His lieutenant-governor, 
Lie. Cabrera, came later, having been delayed, it would 
seem, by shipwreck. 

Conflict between Osorio and Menendez became vio- 
lent very soon indeed after the governor's arrival in 
Havana, when a vessel named the Santa Catalina com- 
manded by Captain Juan de la Parra, carrying supplies, 
etc., for Florida, was detached off Cape San Antonio 



274 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

from Pedro de las Roelas' fleet and instructed to pro- 
ceed to Havana to await Menendez's orders. En route 
it sighted what it believed was a corsair, gave chase and 
overhauled in Matanzas bay a Portuguese caravel, the 
Nazaren, trading without proper papers. Captain 
Parra seized the ship, and, having chased the captain 
and his crew out of the Matanzas woods where they 
were seeking to hide themselves and the most valuable 
part of their cargo, he made them prisoners aboard his 
vessel, took an inventory of what theirs contained 
(hides, gold, pearls) and sent his prize into Havana 
harbor in good order in charge of a pilot named Gon- 
zalo Gallego. Governor Osorio, however, for reasons 
which were at the time variously stated, questioned the 
legality of Captain Parra's procedure, himself took pos- 
session of the Nazaren as it lay at anchor in front of 
Juan de Rojas' house where he was staying, and he sold 
it for 1600 pesos for the crown, a sum the king was ad- 
vised was far less than it should have been. De la 
Parra's and Gallego's protests concerning Osorio's ac- 
tion brought them both into Havana's jail; they later 
alleged that the monotony of their confinement was 
broken by exposure in the stocks, by beatings, and, in 
Gallego's case, by a ducking in the bay. He, as they 
doused him, called on the king to witness how his years 
of good service were rewarded and the governor, he said, 
bade him speak a little louder that Philip might hear. 
In due season the king heard, by way of Menendez's 
resentful account of the matter; a crop of law-suits re- 
sulted. This was by no means the only instance of 
violent disagreement between Florida's adelantado and 
the governor of Cuba. 

Being informed before he left Seville of Havana's 



PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVILES (1565-1567) 275 

lack of adequate defence, Osorio brought with him four 
brass cannon, three dozen arquebuses, and munitions. 
He found the old fort, he said, overgrown with weeds, 
used as a corral for cattle about to be slaughtered; he 
cleared the bush from around it, placed a plank flooring 
over its terraplen and so situated these cannon that 
with the four already there they might be of service if 
necessary. Whenever a sail appeared off shore Osorio 
required the citizens of Havana to assemble along the 
coast, to prevent any enemy from landing. They re- 
sented this service; they objected to the expense of 
keeping themselves armed and they protested that, 
being held in town in readiness to fight, they were pre- 
vented from properly attending to their outlying estates 
which had a very keen interest for them in these years 
that the regular arrival of large fleets provided a certain 
and very advantageous market for all the food-crops 
they could grow. Osorio closed all the trails leading 
into Havana from the west save one, — "the beach 
road" which doubtless followed the route of the bou- 
levard to Vedado to-day. He built a house, possibly 
at the inlet now rapidly vanishing from before San 
Lazaro hospital, to shelter the citizen guards and 
especially their arms and powder from rains. He early 
turned his attention to Fuerza where progress was slow 
for lack of funds (eight thousand pesos appropriated in 
December, 1563, were half spent before they arrived in 
the summer of 1566), and for lack of labor. Sixty- three 
slaves were now, he said, engaged on the work; fourteen 
or fifteen more were busied on the farm out by the river 
where food for all was grown. "In this land," he 
lamented, "people work little, especially the negroes." 
The king was not satisfied in his mind concerning Fuerza 



276 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

and various persons were called upon to report to him 
concerning it. 

Osorio stated that in an emergency Havana could 
muster seventy arquebusiers. He did not consider 
this sufficient protection and asked that a garrison be 
provided, from troops now arriving but intended for 
Florida. A garrison of about two hundred men was 
shortly after detailed to Havana; they were lodged in a 
hired house, neither fort, evidently, being in shape to 
receive them. These men came, however, less because 
Osorio wanted them than because the Adelantado Pedro 
Menendez considered their presence in Havana ad- 
visable. Governor Osorio was not informed concerning 
them when they came nor did they obey him, but rather 
Captain Baltazar Barreda whom Menendez placed in 
command of them. It was on Menendez's order that 
Barreda took possession of Fuerza as its first alcaide 
and placed his artillery there, despite Osorio's protests 
that the place would not be ready for occupancy for a 
year to come. When Menendez left the port Osorio 
arrested Barreda. The captain did not submit tamely; 
as the governor put it briefly, "many things happened." 
It was charged against Osorio that he not only encour- 
aged desertion but actually incited Barreda's garrison 
to mutiny, planning to make Captain Pedro de Re- 
droban, — another of Menendez's own men, — alcaide in 
his stead. Menendez reappeared from Florida in time 
to nip the scheme in formation. Redroban and seven 
or eight of his men fled west out of town but he was 
captured by Captain Barreda, tried and condemned 
to be decapitated on the plaza. His head was to be 
exhibited with a placard reading: "A traitor to his 
king and disobedient to his captain-general," but Re- 



PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVILES (1565-1567) 277 

droban appealed and he and his case were referred to 
Spain. Possibly not all Redroban's rebellious followers 
were captured with him, or deported like Gomez de 
Rojas; certainly not all mutinous soldiers abroad in the 
land were expelled at this period because two years 
later Menendez reported that there were deserters 
among Cuba's outlawed population of disobedient 
priests, mestizos and foreign-born mulattoes (Domin- 
icans), of which the crown authorized him to clean the 
island, and in 1571 some Florida mutineers were re- 
turned to that settlement. Osorio said that reports of 
starvation and death in Florida induced soldiers en 
route there to flee into the interior of Cuba; he said that 
he endeavored to prevent this "with all justice and to 
avoid scandal," but Menendez alleged that he aided 
and abetted deserters and this became a sore point of 
disagreement between the two men. What remained 
at Fuerza of its garrison after Redroban's mutiny was 
put to work digging the moat. Osorio having refused 
to provide implements, Barreda borrowed picks and 
shovels of the townspeople. By 1570 this garrison had 
been withdrawn. 

Apparently the crown dropped the idea of walling 
Havana and took into consideration the suggestion that 
another fort be built instead. In January, 1567, Pedro 
de Valdes, maestre de campo, and Menendez's son-in- 
law, with other captains of the Florida expedition 
whose vessels were then in Havana harbor, acting on 
Menendez's order inspected the seacoast which is now 
the city's waterfront, and gave it as their opinion that 
a round tower thirty-seven feet high would protect the 
shore if erected on the point of land opposite Morro 
and fitted with six pieces of artillery. Valdes offered 



278 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

to build it, the men of Fuerza garrison to work on it 
four hours a day, if the governor and royal officials 
would furnish the materials. This they declined to do, 
saying that the old fort as they were about to repair 
it was sufficient protection until such time as Fuerza 
should be finished. Such a tower, they said, would 
only divide the garrison and so weaken the city's de- 
fence in case of attack. The officials protested that 
they had no authority to expend money for a tower at 
Punta (that point of land). Nevertheless Barreda dug 
a trench and placed two guns there. 

Menendez received even less encouragement in his 
attempt begun during that same month of January, 
1567, to fortify Santiago de Cuba, into which port on 
one occasion (1565) French corsairs hanging off Cape 
Tiburon had chased a vessel of his. A site was chosen 
for a fortification at the harbor's mouth, — perhaps the 
steep slope to starboard of a ship entering where ruins 
still cling bleaching. The citizens, who had been 
clamoring for a wall around their town, but also for a 
hundred of the king's negroes to build it for them, 
furnished eighteen or twenty slaves who worked on this 
fort for a little while, but were very soon indeed with- 
drawn. 

Menendez detailed to Santiago one Captain Godoy 
with fifty men and four pieces of artillery. What little 
provision was made for their support was soon ex- 
hausted. The citizens kept them through part of June, 
July and August, — a season when, the weather being 
prevailingly fair, corsairs might be expected to go 
cruising. Then their troop disbanded and there is no 
reason to suppose that it was a matter of any regret 
to the citizens of Santiago de Cuba: the truth is, 



PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVILES (1565-1567) 279 

French, Portuguese and Scotch traders with slaves and 
other merchandise for sale and exchange were hanging 
about the harbor mouth and off Cape Cruz, and Menen- 
dez's garrison was a detriment to business! Frankly, 
it was left there not only to protect the town against 
any attempt of the French to seize the port and estab- 
lish themselves there, but also to prevent the citizens 
from continuing their active open trade with foreigners 
whom the law declared to be enemies of their country 
and the church denounced as enemies of their faith. On 
one occasion when Captain Godoy and his men took 
their places beside the guns which were in the bulwark 
near the wharf with the intention of preventing a 
French vessel which was already inside the bay from 
landing its cargo, Osorio's lieutenant for Santiago, 
Martin de Mendoza, found an excuse to arrest him. 
It was charged against Osorio that having so disposed 
of Godoy and, with him, of all opposition to the French- 
man's landing, the citizens of Santiago held a recep- 
tion to the corsairs in the bulwark beside the unused 
artillery, mutinous soldiers from Florida acting as in- 
terpreters upon that festal occasion! 

At all events, feeling between Godoy and Mendoza 
became more and more bitter. The captain would 
gladly have left the locality if he could, but his orders 
were to remain until Menendez sent for him, and Parada 
who had his superior officer's power of attorney would 
not alter them; Godoy appealed in vain to the au- 
diencia at Santo Domingo for relief, and, finally, fairly 
caught on the horns of his dilemma, he came to spend- 
ing part of his time on Parada's country estate and part 
of it under arrest. Meanwhile, by April, 1568, visiting- 
judges from Santo Domingo had taken Mendoza's staff 



280 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

of office from him. "They have taken a great weight 
from me," Mendoza wrote Osorio, in informing him of 
the matter, but the governor was indignant at this 
and similar encroachments, as he termed them, upon 
his jurisdiction. Both Godoy and Mendoza were per- 
mitted to attend mass on Palm Sunday of that year. 
They met at the door of San Francisco church and 
there Godoy and a companion named Cordoba grossly 
insulted both Mendoza and his wife, or so the accusa- 
tion against them ran. They then sought refuge in 
the church and resisted arrest but were eventually 
taken, tried by the visiting judges, sentenced by the 
alcaldes, — Godoy to be hung and Cordoba to the gal- 
leys, — which sentences when appeal was taken the 
audiencia augmented by adding that Godoy's body 
should be quartered and Cordoba be lashed! The 
captain was executed on a gibbet especially erected 
before the door of the church where he had committed 
his offence and it is not to be presumed that the quarter- 
ing of his corpse was omitted. Menendez was no man 
to take this sort of thing calmly. He instituted proceed- 
ings against Mendoza and other citizens, freely charging 
that it was Godoy's attempt to check illicit trading 
with the French and other foreigners which cost him 
his life. Mendoza removed to Cartagena but later in 
Spain he was cleared of all charges against him. Just 
at this juncture Francisco de Parada wrote to the 
Spanish king beseeching royal commiseration on his 
Indies: "So thoroughly are foreign nations, such as the 
French and Scotch-English masters of the seas about 
them!" 

There is no denying the evidence that while the set- 
tlers of Santiago, — and of all the neglected east end of 



PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVILES (1565-1567) 281 

Cuba, — continued to pour out to the king their com- 
plaints against Santo Domingo for afflicting them with 
special judges and for transporting them to La Espanola 
to answer charges, and also against Governor Osorio 
for haling them to Havana for legal consideration there 
too of their short-comings, they meanwhile welcomed 
into their ports, — into Santiago, Cape Cruz and Man- 
zanilla especially, — what roving traders presented them- 
selves to do business in wines, linens, silks and slaves. 
They also carried on a lesser, legitimate trade with 
Spain, with Puerto Rico, with La Espanola, with 
Jamaica; with Cartagena, Castilla del Oro, Santa Marta 
and Nueva Granada, exporting especially hides. 

In August, 1567, the king named Don Diego de 
Santillan to be governor of Cuba, succeeding Garcia 
Osorio. Osorio had repeatedly asked to be relieved: 
"My presence here is of no benefit to your majesty's 
service," he said. All documents, — his commission, 
licenses to cover transportation of his goods, instruc- 
tions to proceed against Osorio for his treatment of 
Captain Juan de la Parra, to hold him under arrest for 
shipment to Spain, and to investigate another serious 
charge of extreme cruelty against a prisoner, — all had 
been made out to Santillan when, on October 24th, 
1567, Pedro Menendez himself was made governor of 
the island in his stead. 

Menendez was fresh from exploits in Florida : he had 
drowned the French there in their own blood. Nothing 
of their settlements remained, — not as a base of piratical 
operations against Spanish fleets and lesser shipping, nor 
as a refuge for Calvinist heresy, nor as evidence of any 
truth in French pretension to sovereignty in the new 
world based on claims of ancient discovery. Now he 



282 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

undertook to establish Spanish settlements in their stead 
and to succeed in that Osorio had demonstrated that it 
was necessary for Menendez to control Cuba, just as de 
Soto had done. Menendez was authorized to exercise 
the governorship of the island through a substitute. 

Licenciado Francisco Zayas, who was to have ac- 
companied Santillan as his letrado lieutenant-governor, 
went to Cuba in that capacity for Menendez, arriving 
in Havana on July 24th, 1568, accompanied by his 
wife and family. His welcome was tempered by dis- 
trust the citizens felt lest Menendez make of Cuba, as 
de Soto had done, a mere neglected base of operations 
for the development of Florida at its expense. "All 
hope for justice," Anton Recio wrote the king, "though 
some fear that Florida will be the cause of impairment 
to this island." 

As Osorio' s residencia progressed under Zayas the 
citizens rallied to his assistance. It was proven that 
he had not restored their alcaldes ordinarios, and that 
he had compelled them to stand guard along the beach 
in winter months when no corsairs might be expected 
to outlive the north winds; but if he used the king's 
negroes on other work than Fuerza, they remembered 
that it was to repair the building used as town hall, 
the jail and the meat market; if he compelled the 
Cubefios of Guanabacoa to work on the Chorrera 
ditch, they remembered that the town needed a supply 
of fresh water via that ditch badly, and the natives had 
not complained of ill-treatment. If Osorio was sus- 
pected of throwing his predecessors in his lady-love's 
affections into jail, doubtless it was not the first time 
they had sojourned there; if he gambled, perhaps it was 
usually with strangers passing through Havana who had 



PEDRO MENENDEZ DE AVILES (1565-1567) 283 

large sums of money to lose to him, — moreover, as 
Doctor Angulo had remarked, a governor must have 
some diversion. His bitterest quarrels (those which had 
told against him) were with persons interested in 
augmenting the rival settlements of Florida on the 
strength of provisions taken from the Havanese for 
which they were paid slowly if at all. Therefore, from 
Juan de Rojas down, who stated that he had lived fifty- 
three years in Havana and known many governors, they 
rallied their influential names to communications to the 
crown intended to mitigate severity toward Osorio. 
Light sentence was passed on him on October 27, 1570. 
Documents I have seen concerning Dr. Zayas indi- 
cate that he was of an orderly turn of mind: he drew 
up a schedule of charges for notarial services, supplied 
standard weights and measures, and as far as their 
selection lay with him he swore into office persons he 
believed responsible to receive moneys, presenting them 
before the city council for approval. He made the mis- 
take, however, of coming into conflict with Menendez. 
For instance, he accused the adelantado of forcing their 
owners to give over certain lots of land on which to 
found a Jesuit school, for the instruction of Spanish 
children and Indians as well, including those of Florida, 
although the transfer of these lots is recorded as an 
expropriation by the town council. Moreover, Dr. 
Zayas seems to have feigned to consider himself some- 
what independent of the adelantado because his appoint- 
ment as lieutenant-governor antedated that of Menen- 
dez as governor, and Menendez had, probably, little 
or nothing to do with his selection. By spring, 1569, 
relations between the two had strained to the breaking 
point. The action taken against Zayas, however, was 



284 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

based on the city council's charge that he had not put 
up the bond required of lieutenant-governors. Pro- 
curador Artiaga made formal protest before the council 
and the council being in accord with his views as to the 
gravity of this oversight, Zayas laid down the verge of 
his office on May 7th, 1569, protesting that it was 
against his wish to do so. He and his wife were re- 
turned to Spain together with other persons against 
whom the adelantado instituted suits. Zayas appears 
later (1584) in office as judge in the Canary Islands. 
Menendez then (June 14, 1570), made Licenciado 
Diego de Cabrera his letrado lieutenant-governor in 
Zayas' stead; Cabrera had served Garcia Osorio in 
that capacity and had the approval of the audiencia. 
Menendez was further represented in Havana by 
no less than five acting governors: by Diego de Ribera; 
by his nephew Pedro Melendez Marquez; by Juan de 
Ynestrosa; by Juan Alonso de Nabia who was sent to 
relieve Melendez Marques, but dying within a week 
hardly interrupted that young man's administration; 
and by Sancho Pardo Osorio. He had his representa- 
tives in the east, as well. 



CHAPTER XVIII 

FRENCH INFLUENCE WANES (1567-1573) 

Overseas the Catholic King was now beset on every 
hand by those forces of enlightenment and advancement 
against which he had constituted himself a bulwark of 
opposition : by Huguenots, by Lutherans and by Protest- 
ants. Even by moriscos in arms in Spain itself and by 
the Turk, taking timely advantage of the situation to 
threaten Christendom from the Mediterranean! The 
Indies became matters of minor interest to him except- 
ing so far as concerned their plate fleets, — his most 
important source of revenue. 

These changing circumstances were to retire France 
from her historic position as foremost antagonist of 
Spain: French policy in the Indies, reflecting Catherine 
de Medici's perplexities as she used Huguenots against 
Guises, was to become again one merely of individual 
adventure and general annoyance. These facts were 
not however immediately perceptible to Cuba. 

There it was very evident that Menendez had not 
succeeded in cleansing the Caribbean of corsairs; in- 
stead, their number increased and their variety was 
augmented by the advent of Hollanders out of the 
rebel Low Countries and by English. Suspicious sails 
were seen off Santiago de Cuba in October, 1567. In 
January, 1568, the king despatched a warning to the 
island to be on guard. In April of that year a French- 
man hung off Havana but accomplished nothing. 

285 



286 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

From Havana in June, Menendez himself wrote that 
he feared for the safety of the fleets. In April, 1570, 
the governor was informed from Santo Domingo that 
"Juan Halles, muy pujante" was sailing arrogantly 
west with twenty-four galleons: the "beggars of the 
seas" were abroad in force on their element. In 
October, French rovers visited Baracoa and compelled 
its residents to provide them with cazabi and meat. 
In April, 1572, the crown again issued warnings of 
French and English corsairs to be expected; in January 
word via Turin was that twenty-five companies were 
being raised near Paris, and elsewhere, to take Havana, 
— after fortifying themselves there the French would 
proceed to Santo Domingo. In July, 1573, the acting 
governor at Havana reported that corsairs had taken, 
at Manzanilla, three ships with eight or ten thousand 
hides. "The adelantado is needed here," he said. 

Danger augmenting, interest in Fuerza revived. 
Vfork had dragged heavily for lack of funds, — Philip 
had use for cash elsewhere. Mexico had sent nothing 
since the eight thousand pesos brought in 1566; revenues 
of local origin, especially customs house receipts, were 
being applied to the work, but they were not sufficient. 
Menendez was called upon to report on the fort before 
the council for the Indies. He stated that Havana's 
fort was in such shape that if, "because of his sins," the 
enemy took it they could immediately finish it and 
render themselves very difficult to dislodge from it. 
He urged that three hundred slaves be provided to 
complete it in two years. The shipping interests of 
Seville petitioned the crown to about the same effect. 
Philip expressed impatience, not, as popularly supposed, 
that Fuerza had cost so much, but that it was so amaz- 



FRENCH INFLUENCE WANES (1567-1573) 287 

ingly slow in getting done. In April, 1570, Acting- 
governor Ribera sent a statement of accounts, a draw- 
ing showing considerable actual building accomplished, 
and asked for a hundred negroes and ten thousand 
pesos to finish it. Materials he had, but not hands 
enough to place them nor money to pay what hands he 
had. Their salaries were due the men in charge for 
three months back. 

Ribera desired to demolish the old fort. Menendez 
had reported that in its almost defenceless condition 
it constituted a menace to the town; nevertheless half 
torn down, it remained for many years longer. Ribera 
had eight pieces of artillery in place in the new fort, 
six of them commanding the harbor entrance and two 
the anchorage within the bay. He wanted twenty 
more. The town could then muster a hundred and 
thirty to a hundred and fifty arquebusiers, and per- 
haps forty or fifty more fighting men, but the fort, he 
said, deserved a garrison at least as large as it had once 
had (of two hundred men), who should, he mentioned, 
be in command of the governor to avoid such difficul- 
ties as Garcia Osorio had occasioned Menendez. For 
the citizens to defend themselves was a hardship since 
it hindered them from attending to their business; 
neither, he said, could he rely upon them for sometimes 
when he called to arms only half the force he should 
have, responded. He had sentinels out along the coast 
from Pan de Matanzas to Marien, with instructions 
to advise him if they saw two sails or more approach- 
ing in company. At Cape San Antonio he kept a sloop 
in readiness to speed any necessary warning on, to 
the continental settlements. 

In response to this report the king ordered Mexico 



288 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

to send to Cuba four thousand ducats for the Fuerza 
work and instructed Menendez to assemble and convey 
to Cuba a selected garrison of fifty men, — the number 
the Havana city council, reflecting Ribera's views, had 
petitioned be sent. He did so. Orders were issued to 
the royal officials of Tierra Firme to prepare to pay 
their wages. The casa de la contratacion was ordered 
to consult with Menendez with a view to providing 
men and materials needed to prosecute work on the 
fort. The king conceived an ingenious notion of bor- 
rowing, as it were, the negroes he did not seem able to 
procure otherwise: he was willing to grant traders free 
license to take blacks to Cuba provided they were 
assigned to work on Fuerza until its completion, — ■ 
estimated at three years, — after which they were to 
be at the disposal of their owners, the aforesaid traders. 
This proposition made little appeal to the traders, un- 
questionably because of the risk to their property it 
involved, so a different arrangement was effected in 
November, 1571, with Juan Fernandez de Espinosa 
who bound himself to deliver at Havana three hundred 
blacks (two-thirds males and one-third females, aged 
eighteen to thirty, from Cape Verde), one hundred to 
be in the hands of the royal officials by June, 1572, 
and the remainder by the following December. On 
July 26th, 1572, he did deliver one hundred and ninety- 
one; the second instalment of one hundred nine was 
never received, for they were seized in transit in Santo 
Domingo. There is indication that this merchandise 
arrived in Havana in damaged condition, after a 
hideous passage. Thirteen died of small-pox after 
landing; they took with them by the same disease 
ten of the old slaves, and the loss of these trained labor- 



FRENCH INFLUENCE WANES (1567-1573) 289 

ers further handicapped the work on Fuerza. The 
epidemic ran its course among the whites, too. 

Complaint as to labor was now reversed. The 
Havana officials had in charge more negroes than they 
could readily feed. The Chorrera farm was not suf- 
ficiently productive, not even under the attention of 
the Cubenos of Guanabacoa hired to work it. Meat and 
corn had to be purchased and the officials of Yucatan 
who had at first (1569) been asked for two hundred 
fanegas of corn per annum were now drawn upon for a 
thousand, a requisition they avoided when they could 
and met grudgingly when they must. On being in- 
formed that his slaves could not attend mass for lack 
of garments to cover them, the king ordered clothing 
sent. 

Cuba kept up a constant clamor for money, and for 
more money from the continent. In March, 1571, 
Menendez Marquez sent the accountant Duran into 
the east of the island to go over the accounts of office- 
holders; of the four or five thousand pesos which he 
gathered up as due the crown, three thousand nine 
hundred and fifty were sent to Havana and expended 
to pay the more skilled laborers on the fort and to settle 
with the residents for provisions furnished the soldiery. 
It was learned that the ship bearing the king's order that 
Mexico supply another four thousand ducats had been 
lost; the king was entreated to issue a duplicate cedula. 
The officials considered selling off a few of the slaves 
with a view to raising cash which the fort work im- 
peratively demanded. Menendez Marquez transferred 
a thousand ducats out of an unrelated fund and bought 
what ammunition he could, laid in certain supplies 
and otherwise prepared the fort as best he was able for 



290 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

a visit from the French corsairs he understood were off 
the mainland coast. Fortunately they did not material- 
ize. 

Sancho Pardo Osorio, succeeding as acting governor 
for Menendez, pushed the work on Fuerza despite all 
odds, even advancing money of his own to keep the 
men at it when they struck for arrears in pay. The walls 
now approached the prescribed height. The moat was 
being dug, as deep as the plans required though only 
half the width. Still neither money nor corn arrived 
from Mexico. Not until the summer of 1573 was the 
situation somewhat relieved by receipt of the four 
thousand ducats expected; they were swallowed up in 
settlement of debts and more money immediately 
demanded. In May of that spring the crown had or- 
dered two thousand more provided. 

Ungraciously as Mexico met Cuba's exigencies, the 
officials of Panama and Nombre de Dios were even 
more dilatory. Late in 1572 a small sum of money 
arrived which did not go far toward paying the soldiers 
of the garrison what was long overdue them. When 
remittances did come they were in silver and depreci- 
ated as compared with "mine" gold from Mexico, and 
for these reasons Sancho Pardo earnestly recommended 
that Mexico and not Tierra Firme be relied upon for 
the garrison's pay. 

Complaints that he did not pay for provisions even at 
prices he had arbitrarily reduced were frequently 
entered against Menendez. The crown had ordered the 
citizens of Havana to prepare what meat and fish he 
needed for his expeditions into Florida, and to aid him 
in every possible manner. They complied while money 
the crown provided and what Menendez himself pos- 



FRENCH INFLUENCE WANES (1567-1573) 291 

sessed or could obtain from his friends, held out; beyond 
that, their interest waned. In response to the adelan- 
tado's counter-complaints (there were times when the 
whole Florida venture was jeopardized for lack of 
supplies) the king issued cedulas and more cedulas bid- 
ding the Havanese furnish what was necessary. They 
avoided compliance as adroitly as they could, explain- 
ing, for instance, that Governor Osorio would not 
permit them to obey, or that they had been advised to 
consult with the distant audiencia of Santo Domingo 
first. They demanded a settlement for supplies pro- 
vided the first Fuerza garrison under Barreda: when 
the smaller garrison of fifty arrived, they broke out in 
fresh lamentations that they were nevertheless still 
compelled to mount guard along the coast, supplying 
their own arms and ammunition. They wanted, they 
said through their procurador, a governor of their own 
"who should be neither the adelantado nor his creature." 
In March, 1571, the council of the Indies which was 
never his friend advised Menendez' removal, — for the 
betterment of administration and defence, — and the 
appointment of a governor who should reside per- 
manently in the place. On his return to Spain, pre- 
sumably in the year following, Philip decided that 
Menendez could serve the crown effectively nearer 
home, and he was made captain-general of a fleet to 
clear the western coast of Spain and the Flanders 
channel of corsairs, a command he accepted with ex- 
pressions of discontent at being so separated from 
Florida. On January 3, 1573, the crown commissioned 
Dr. Alonso de Caceres Ovando, a judge of the Santo 
Domingo audiencia but at the moment relieved from 
duty, to make an inquisition into Menendez 's adminis- 



292 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

tration in Cuba, without, however, suspending him 
from office; Menendez was privileged to answer through 
an attorney or in person, as he might choose. Dr. Ca- 
ceres arrived in Havana on November 14, 1573, and 
made a close inquiry (yisita) into Menendez's admin- 
istration; the adelantado seems to have preferred not 
to answer it at all. On December 13, 1573, Don Gabriel 
Montalvo, knight of the Order of St. James, and high 
sheriff of the Holy Inquisition in the city of Granada, 
was made governor of Cuba to succeed him. 

Pedro Menendez died in Santander in September, 
1574, — the first truly great man to cast his shadow 
across the island of Cuba. It was not somber enough, 
however, to drive from her coast and ports which he 
sought to guard, those heretic traders who were his 
particular abhorrence. In fine, able and earnest as he 
was, all for his God and for his king, Pedro Menendez 
failed in his mission because neither he nor his times 
recognized the existence of a simple and irresistible 
principle which may not be so disregarded : the economic 
law of supply and demand. In America Spain readily 
obtained political control and as readily maintained it; 
using Catholicism as an instrument she effected a 
religious unity to this day not broken: the formulae 
of the Roman church are still observed from Florida to 
the Horn! But in economics her genius met its limita- 
tions and because of her failure to learn hard lessons in 
matters of agriculture, industry, trade and commerce, 
Spain lost forever all that her sailors, her soldiers and 
her churchmen had gained for her in the new world. 
Of this, Pedro de Menendez stands forth in handsome 
evidence: sword and cross in hand, French policies and 
French heresies in Florida could not resist him — he 



FRENCH INFLUENCE WANES (1567-1573) 293 

overthrew French political and religious achievement 
in the Spanish- America of his time; but those nimble 
traders whose light craft swarmed out of Abra de 
Gracia with cargoes of linens and Rouen silks repre- 
sented the mightier force of economic development, 
and they carried his defeat and the rout of all that 
his heavy patrolling galleons embodied into every 
shallow unguarded indentation of Cuba's long and 
broken coast. 



FOREWORD TO BOOK IV 

Material for the history of Cuba from the end of 
Pedro Menendez's governorship to Drake's passage 
along the north coast of Cuba is very full and fine, at 
Seville, and it is to be found in the following seventy- 
eight legajos: 1-1-1/20; 2-1-1/25; 2-1-2/26; 2-1-241/37; 
2-5-1/14; 2-5-1/22; 2-5-2/10; 2-5-2/15; 2-5-2/25; 
2-5-3/11; 2-5-4/12; 2-6-1; 6-4-1/25; 6-4-2/26; 6-5- 
8/2; 7-1-1/12; 47-1-14/41; 51-3-106/30; 51-5-12/1 
51-1-12/22; 51-5-14/24; 52-2-3; 53-1-7; 53-2-9 
53-4-9; 53-6-4; 53-6-5; 54-1-9; 54-1-15; 54-1-32 
54-1-34; 54-2-2; 54-2-3; 54-2-4; 54-2-5; 54-2-6 
54-2-22; 54-2-23; 54-3-1; 54-3-2; 54-3-^; 54-3-6 
54-3-15; 54-3-17; 54-3-19; 54-3-23; 54-5-16; 54-6-4 
78-2-1; 79-4-2; 85-3-1; 98-7-8; 139-6-20; 139-6-23 
139-7-1; 139-7-5; 139-7-14; 140-2-4; 140-3-1; 140- 
3-9; 140-7-32; 140-7-33; 140-7-34; 140-7-35; 140- 
7-36; 141-4-8; 141-7-1; 145-1-9; 145-5-15; 147-6-1; 
148-1-13; 151-2-8; 152-1-1; 153-1-6; 153-4-9; 153- 
4-15; 154-1-8; 154-1-14. 

I. A. W. 



295 



BOOK IV 
CHAPTER XIX 

MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 

And now Philip of Spain, representing Catholicism, 
came face to face with Elizabeth of England, champion 
of Protestantism, — " Virgin Queen," whose virginity 
was less a personal than a national diplomatic asset, 
signifying (as it did) that she had since her accession 
reestablished and maintained her country's political 
and religious independence of Europe, especially of 
Spain. Nevertheless, the Catholic King had no desire 
to precipitate an encounter. "The key-note of Philip's 
foreign policy, — that which he had inherited from his 
Burgundian forefathers,- — was to keep on good terms 
with England" (Hume, in Philip II. of Spain). Reli- 
gion aside, and Philip could lay religion aside whenever 
it conflicted with his politics, it was better for him that 
Elizabeth sit firmly upon her throne than that Mary 
Stuart should occupy it only to make her French uncles 
paramount, provided Philip could keep Elizabeth 
friendly, or if not friendly, at least neutral in her atti- 
tude especially toward the rebel Netherlands. There 
Alba was failing to crush life out of the Lutherans and 
the States of Flanders. Elizabeth, swayed first this 
way and then that by diplomatic considerations, 
avoided open warfare as sedulously as Philip himself, 
but the great conflict for supremacy which must come, 

297 



298 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

loomed inevitable before them, and just as he plotted 
her murder, " purely and simply for the service of God," 
so she while nominally at peace with him loosed on his 
Indies those most famous raiders of the Spanish main, — 
John Hawkins and Francis Drake, — who carried the 
contest into the west in its threefold character: com- 
mercial, religious and political. 

Philip was slow to move in his defence. Drake's era of 
piracy began about 1570, but not for fifteen years were 
the beneficial effects of Spain's well-justified fear of 
England made evident in Cuba. Faithful record of 
those fifteen years, between 1570 and Drake's most 
notorious exploit in the Caribbean in 1585-86, can be 
but a chronicle of petty events in the colony, enacted 
under governors of comparatively little worth. 

Don Gabriel Montalvo, made governor of Cuba to 
succeed Pedro Menendez, seems to have left Spain ac- 
companied by his wife and children and a retinue of 
eighteen servants and three slaves. He entered Cuba by 
the port of Manzanilla, visited Santiago (making rec- 
ommendations as to measures for its defence) and went 
on to Bayamo from where he was hastily summoned to 
Havana by what closely approximated a mutiny in 
Fuerza of which Gomez de Rojas, still "incorrigible," 
seems to have been the ringleader. 

From the east on his arrival Montalvo had made 
Diego de Soto his representative in Havana. De Soto, 
because he was old, ill and busy, had placed Gomez 
de Rojas in command of Fuerza and its forty-seven 
privates and one artilleryman, despite protests that 
because the captain was a vecino he was by law in- 
eligible to serve as a soldier in the fort. Gomez refused 
to surrender this honor on demand. Montalvo's ar- 



MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 299 

rival seems to have brought the doughty Gomez down 
off the fort's walls where he and his followers mounted 
guard as though the town itself were a besieging enemy, 
and his insubordination appears to have escaped more 
serious penalty than a fine. Nor was this the sum total 
of disturbance created for Montalvo by the Rojas 
family. 

Between him and Juan Bautista de Rojas, treasurer 
succeeding Juan de Ynestrosa, deceased, existed the 
friction that had irritated preceding governors and royal 
officials bent upon fulfilling the obligations of their 
office especially as regarded the inspection of ships and 
the collection of customs duties. It had been repeatedly 
charged against Menendez's acting governors, even 
by Caceres against Menendez Marquez in particular, 
that they tolerated, even profited by smuggling and 
themselves openly engaged in trade; Sancho Pardo not 
only had stores in Havana but he maintained agents 
throughout the island and sent hides to Spain in quan- 
tities. Captain-general Diego Flores de Valdes himself 
was ordered to permit the royal officials to make in- 
spections of vessels of the armada; he obeyed by bidding 
the officials content their zeal with setting guards to 
prevent surreptitious landing of goods. The officials 
repeatedly alleged that the governors were more active 
in boarding ships than they should be: " These officials," 
Caceres had exclaimed, when his judicial equanimity 
was ruffled, "must be so environed that they can do 
their duty fearlessly." 

Governor Montalvo was not disposed to yield any- 
thing of his office's prerogatives or of its perquisites. 
Rojas, the treasurer, accused him and his lieutenant 
Lie. Cabrera of permitting masters of trading vessels, — 



300 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

for a consideration, — to avoid the law and payment of 
duties, and of forbidding the officials to appraise goods 
except in the presence of his clerk, against whose fee 
of a ducat they said shipowners protested. Repetitions 
of complaints of this nature in this connection had their 
effect, for whereas the king had at first ordered that 
the governor be permitted to visit ships at his pleasure, 
he later bade Montalvo leave this matter entirely to 
the royal officials. 

Nor was this the only respect in which suspicion was 
aroused against don Gabriel: he was accused of ap- 
pointing minor officials to work on Fuerza at salaries 
which might have been less, of allowing the royal offi- 
cials no hand in control of the affairs of the fortification, 
of using the king's negroes for his own purposes, of 
hiring them out to others (accounts show that some 
money so earned by the blacks was turned into the 
treasury), and, in consideration of two hundred ducats 
paid to him for the favor of selling to Bartolome Morales 
for five hundred ducats, a notarial office (escribania de 
gobernacion) for which Caceres' clerk Matos would have 
paid the crown a thousand. Morales received a royal 
lifehold appointment to that place, under date of No- 
vember 18, 1567. He was implicated with Montalvo 
in charges of " graft" in connection with customs col- 
lections, by complaints which Rojas, openly and also 
secretly, repeated to the king with such persistence that 
by March, 1574, Rojas was informed that the governor 
had been advised to expect his residencia to be taken. 
Not, however, until the four years for which he was 
appointed had expired, did the crown on February 13, 
1577, name Captain Francisco Carreno to succeed 
Montalvo. Charges against him in his residencia seem 



MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 301 

to suggest venality, but he continued in the king's serv- 
ice after he left Cuba in June, 1578. 

Although it was Drake and his Englishmen who had 
taken Nombre de Dios and crossed the isthmus (guided 
by outlaw blacks), — viewed the Pacific there, its ports 
and possibilities, — and promised to build ships on that 
side of the continents to wrest their ownership from 
Spain, and by August, 1579, Havana knew that "the" 
corsair had entered the South Sea by the straits of 
Magellan and coasted as far north as Acapulco at least, 
nevertheless they were French rovers who most troubled 
Montalvo and after him Governor Carreno of Cuba. 
French ships were increasingly frequent visitors at 
Cape Cruz, Santiago, Manzanilla, Guatanago, and 
minor ports of that south-east coast. 

Documents of the years 1572 to 1579 are full of 
picturesque accounts of their affairs. The student 
looking through these yellow pages sees stranger ships 
rocking at anchor off Cape Cruz, — sees their launches 
set forth for the rendezvous, with canvas and silks 
to exchange for fresh meat and the hides which Span- 
iards had contracted months before to have ready 
for delivery to them there and then. One sees their 
negotiations, — the more or less secret meetings, deep 
drinking, and Spaniards in consultation as to the ad- 
visability of killing their French hosts, "seeing that 
they slept!" One sees the results of business misunder- 
standings, — Vasco Porcallo's "key" at Sabana burned, 
or Spanish frigates seized at Embarcadero de Cauto, 
and the people of Bayamo (disturbed at mass by the 
news) tumbling out of church pell-mell to ride to rescue 
their ships, — only to find them gone with the French. 
One sees French launches ambushed on the Cauto, — by 



302 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Gomez de Rojas, blithest spirit I have found living on 
in all the archive of Seville! To some purpose he missed 
the evil death on a desert key which Mazariegos wished 
him; lived to annoy Pedro Menendez into deporting 
him, to return, to act as governor of Jamaica (as had 
his brother Hernan Manrique before him), where he 
handled English visitors roughly, and, no longer an 
"incorrigible" mutineer in command of Fuerza, he had 
more than one encounter with corsairs off Havana and 
Matanzas, and finally at Bayamo, become "an expert 
and capable person," he was made captain ("as was 
usual in time of war") against the French: thirteen dead 
men in one foray bore witness to his prowess in fight. 
One sees Lie. Cabrera sent by Montalvo to investigate 
into lawless trading: he finds his son implicated in shady 
transactions, and forthwith confines his attention to 
inquiry into the morality of slaves of the neighborhood! 
One sees the local authorities protesting against every 
attempt to enforce law and order, — their own houses full 
of contraband goods, their own cattle furnishing the 
hides with which these were purchased. Francisco 
Calvillo y Avellaneda, pious resident of Bayamo, could 
suggest no efficient remedy for such a state of affairs as 
this, except in the holy office of the inquisition. "I do 
not know a land," he wrote, "called Christian which 
is so utterly lost, laymen and clergy alike!" It was 
worse, he lamented, than England itself. 

Montalvo felt alarm. When in 1576 French were with 
difficulty driven off Santiago, he advised the king that 
one more incident of the sort would relieve him of all 
anxiety as to the fortification of that port. In that 
same year French corsairs almost captured a despatch 
boat off Havana. "If I had a galley these Frenchmen 



MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 303 

would never see France again!" Montalvo exclaimed. 
"If I had a galley," Carrefio repeated, "they should not 
go unchastised ! " 

During these years numerous suggestions for coast 
patrol were made to the crown. Cumbersome galleons 
such as Pedro Menendez has commanded when he 
sought to police "the coasts and ports of Indies," were 
out of date; persons in Cuba recommanded galliots and 
frigates (Menendez had built frigates at Bayamo which 
were models for speed), and the council for the Indies 
hesitated undecided between frigates and galleys. The 
governor was called upon to report if frigates could be 
built in Cuba; the Havana council protested that the 
colony could not assist toward meeting the expense of 
them. 

Neither, Carrefio observed, were "the stone and 
earth of Cuba, made into a fort, sufficient for her de- 
fence." The insistent demand through all these years 
was for artillery. The crown actually relied for guns 
to arm Fuerza, and so protect Havana, on a project to 
raise those from Ribaut's ships which were wrecked off 
Florida! Of seven pieces of artillery in place, not all 
were serviceable and none of range sufficient to reach 
the harbor's mouth. 

Construction of Fuerza dragged. Calona, ordered 
"not to raise hand from the work," was accused of 
attempting to make it "of immortal duration" to keep 
himself assured of a job forever. Money to meet ex- 
penditures on it arrived irregularly. The men to whom 
pay was due struck, vowing the governor might hang 
them, but they would not resume work until they got 
their wages; they bade Calona, the governor and the 
king's officials build the fort themselves. The garrison 



304 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

was no happier; their pay did not arrive, the townsmen 
refused them credit, — although the ladies were fre- 
quently more lenient! 

As the fort grew, so too in obviousness did its defects. 
It was too small to shelter a garrison adequate to its 
defence, to say nothing at all of serving as a rendezvous 
for the townspeople in case of danger; it threatened to 
shake down under the recoil of its own guns; its too 
numerous and too large gates were a dangerous weak- 
ness; its parapets were too low to protect men serving 
what guns it had. If enemy ships should come in close 
its guns could not accommodate themselves to the 
range. Built of porous stone the place leaked till water 
stood in pools on the floor; the reservoir however being 
of similar material would hold none ("though it rain 
all year no water tarries there"), — and (although Cal- 
villo y Avellaneda had remarked as much long before) 
it was realized at this late date that an enemy on 
Cabana hill across the bay dominated the fort itself, 
and the town and harbor it was therefore inadequate to 
defend. The project to wall the city was again brought 
forward; the crown forwarded a plan and ordered work 
begun upon it. Apparently this plan was based upon a 
report Menendez had made; since then Havana had 
developed, and, the local authorities explained in de- 
laying obedience to the cedula in question, to execute 
the plan sent meant the demolition of the church and 
other principal buildings and an expenditure of perhaps 
a hundred thousand ducats in expropriation of private 
properties. They could not believe that the king pro- 
posed to commence its improvement by razing the 
town! The governor feared it would never recover if so 
destroyed. 



MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 305 

There is every indication that at this period all the 
island felt the stir of notable development. It was 
doubtless due in part at least to general prosperity on 
the continents for the fleets which now foregathered in 
Havana harbor, — from Nombre de Dios, from Vera 
Cruz, from Santo Domingo and from the Canary 
Islands, — 'represented big business being done. At 
given times they poured many thousands of persons 
into Havana, there to be maintained for many weeks 
or even months. They constituted a great demand for 
all the islands' simple products, which (excepting hides) 
were almost entirely food-stuffs. The pay obtained 
for these goods was "easy" money, spent under stress 
in an abnormal market. The whole colony felt the 
stimulus of this port's hectic "seasons," but felt it in 
direct proportion to distance intervening. Unhappy 
Santiago, for instance, would have denied feeling it at 
all. 

Land was by this time pretty well taken up; in the 
east disputes as to title and usufruct had already given 
rise to killings and the city of Santiago asked that the 
governor investigate the situation there. In a series 
of ordinances which he laid down in 1574, Dr. Caceres 
prescribed that any applicant for a grant of lands for 
cattle raising (these grants seem to have been in usu- 
fruct only) must apply to the town council within 
jurisdiction of which the desired area lay, as had been 
the custom evidently from earliest times. But now 
he must specify in detail the location and boundaries 
of the land in question and summon the nearest neigh- 
bors, no matter how far distant, that they might pro- 
test if they considered their interests involved. Also 
the town procurador must testify that the grant would 



306 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

not be prejudicial to the public welfare nor trespass 
upon the rights of third parties. Unless these formali- 
ties were met no title was valid. The actual boundaries 
must be laid off by a party of five persons, two of them 
representing the new owner, two the neighbors and 
one the town council which then granted a license to 
use the land. The person obtaining such license must 
use it himself; he might not dispose of the privilege. 
Three years' abandonment of the property invalidated 
a title. Dr. Caceres intended to end what was evi- 
dently a common abuse: the claiming of title to large 
indefinite unused tracts. Probably he did not entirely 
succeed for Carreno later suggested that the exces- 
sively large holdings of the " first-comers " be " moder- 
ated" to accommodate further settlement; he said that 
in less than a year after his arrival thirty grants of 
land for hog ranches and many more for farms and 
cattle ranges had been made, presumably to the west 
of Havana, for he added that there was no land left 
available except at a distance of forty or fifty leagues 
from the city toward Cape San Antonio. Outside 
actual used pastures the hunting of cattle and hogs 
which had run wild was free to all, and to preserve its 
advantages to the people of Havana the Caceres or- 
dinances forbade the granting of titles to cattle ranges 
within eight leagues of the town. On the other hand, 
to protect owners of more or less domesticated herds, 
all hides offered for sale must carry ears attached: it 
was customary to brand cattle on the ears and the 
intention was to make hunters show that their game 
was indeed wild, i. e., unbranded on the ears. Dogs 
were not to be used in hunting lest they kill calves and 
so hinder increase without proportionate profit. Licit 



MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 307 

exportation of hides amounted in 1578 to about twenty 
thousand per annum, despite which, the governor said, 
the herds increased in number, so excellently was the 
land adapted to their needs. Cattle owners were re- 
quired to furnish Havana with meat. Caceres en- 
deavored to protect the Cubenos of Guanabacoa against 
encroachment on their holdings there and declared 
invalid certain titles Menendez Marquez and the town 
council had granted to their detriment; and Carreno 
reported that he took steps to protect the Indians in 
their rights to land and in the hunting of wild cattle 
upon which the poorer colonists largely depended, but 
the bishop informed the crown that the aborigines were 
"strangers on the soil," exploited by their protectors. 

To encourage general farming Caceres provided that 
land for estancias (plantations of food-crops) might 
be granted within the boundaries of previous grants 
of cattle ranges, the owners of these to be compensated 
with extension of territory in some other direction. 

The forests which originally stood heavy around 
Havana had by now been destroyed. When in 1578 
the king ordered "incorruptible and very good woods," 
— cedar, ebony, mahogany, acana, guayacan and iron- 
wood, — sent to embellish the Escorial, they had to be 
brought from a distance by his slaves (the ebony from 
Baracoa) although there is evidence that there were 
originally cedar and mahogany trees about Havana 
itself, incredible as this may seem at the present day. 
Shipment of such woods was made in the summer of 
1579 and others followed through a period of ten years 
at least. Similarly, Spain looked to Cuba for masts 
for ships, since rebellion in Flanders had closed that 
source of supply. The Isle of Pines was known (pre- 



308 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

sumably it was " populated" after 1572 with Alonso de 
Rojas' cattle since in that year it was granted to him 
for a range) and Montalvo reported upon its forests, 
but the pine woods on the west coast of Cuba itself 
beyond Bahia Honda toward San Antonio seemed most 
feasible to exploit for this purpose. 

Montalvo, when he first arrived in Cuba, was es- 
pecially impressed by reports he heard of rich gold 
and copper mines known only to a few old Cubefios 
liable to die at any time; he urged the king to develop 
the mineral resources of the island and was instructed 
to investigate and report. Cubefios of the various 
villages when ordered (in Montalvo's time) to prospect 
for mines, seemed reluctant to discover any, lest they 
be compelled to work them as they once had been; so 
Carreno sent out a prospector to look for silver and had 
others seek it near all the settlements. Old workings 
impressed him with the belief that "in the days of the 
Indians" gold had been found in abundance; of silver, 
however, he discovered no indications. The account- 
ant Roman suggested that Florida Indians be imported 
to work mines; he and Menendez Marquez both thought 
they had merited condemnation to hard labor by their 
"rebellious and unjust wars," waged on Christians in 
violation of the allegiance they had acknowledged to 
Spain, and such a measure would extirpate idolatry 
there while developing Cuba's mineral wealth. Car- 
refio was also informed of iron, all over the island, 
"in more than twenty ranges," including presumably 
those of Xurugua which were a little later named by 
name. 

A copper deposit was found to exist near Havana. 
Carreno sent a sample of the ore and suggested that 



MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 309 

fifty of the king's negroes be detailed to exploit the 
mine. Presumably its quality was satisfactory for 
casting into cannon, for the council of war reported 
favorably upon the suggestion and the king ordered 
that the ore from this mine be used as ballast, a con- 
venient way to freight it to Spain. In 1580, some 
mining was done, — enough to arouse the suspicion that 
the deposit was a pocket, not a substantial vein; and 
the cost of operation, especially of transporting the 
ore to Havana, seemed to be prohibitive despite the 
fact that an assay showed "a fifth part good copper." 
Other copper mines were known in the Bayamo dis- 
trict, and that city requested authorization to coin 
quartos for circulation in the island only, eleven to be 
equivalent to a silver real; the petition was referred to 
the audiencia at Santo Domingo and was not granted, 
I think. Only with respect to the Santiago mines 
was anything actually done. Juan Tezel had had his 
troubles in working the copper deposits there, — cor- 
sairs, hurricanes, shipwreck, law suits, death and dis- 
ability of his men, were among calamities which af- 
flicted him. In 1563, he indicated a desire to resume 
operations regardless; he requested that the agreement 
entered into with him in 1546, be pronounced still valid 
and after due consideration the crown did in 1571 con- 
firm it, even authorizing him to take foreign-born 
workmen to Cuba with him. Tezel, however, died 
evidently before he could take advantage of this con- 
firmation which it had cost him years to untangle from 
the red tape of official procedure. In January, 1578, an 
agreement looking to the exploitation of the Santiago 
mines was entered into with Sancho de Medina Cerezo. 
Medina died and his partner, Alvaro Clavijo, stepped 



310 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

into the favorable concession made them, and " having 
spent himself," or so he said, "upon the expedition" 
he got away from San Lucar by September, 1579, with 
equipment and men. When he reached Santo Domingo 
a ship had just come in robbed by corsairs, — most of 
the crew had been killed, — whereat panic seized his 
people and they refused to go on to Santiago since 
the route they must follow was in control of such ene- 
mies. Clavijo returned to Spain, and tried to assemble 
a second lot of workmen and materials. Death beset 
him, — his wife, his children, his servant died, and he 
was alone. Plague was in the land and quarantine 
regulations hampered him, but he was in Havana in 
January, 1581, although "with fewer people than he 
needed." In October, 1583, he asked a prorogation 
of his concession. Presumably he did not get it for the 
governor of Cuba being asked to report said that he 
had accomplished nothing. The governor may not 
have been entirely impartial in his attitude toward 
Clavijo: in 1577 on the strength of a paragraph in a 
cedula which was interpreted as authorizing the gover- 
nor so to do, certain titles to mines in the Santiago 
copper district were granted at Bayamo by Montalvo's 
lieutenant there to two or three people who did some 
actual work. One of them bought in what was left of 
Juan Tezel's improvements and a workman of his who 
understood copper seems to have been the chief reliance 
of these exploiters of the deposits. Hernan Manrique 
de Rojas became interested. He went down to the 
mines with twenty-two slaves and grew food-crops, 
"which is the most necessary thing," the governor re- 
marked, "that the work people may have enough to 
eat." One Manuel Nunez Lobo ("a fugitive") sent 



MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 311 

some twenty slaves from Santo Domingo, — possibly 
his contribution to a partnership with Hernan Man- 
rique, but, the governor concluded, in reviewing the 
matter up to May, 1587, no copper had as yet been 
seen as results of their activities. This, he knew, was 
no fault of the mines, "for there is so much metal and 
the mines are so numerous they could supply the world 
with copper; only lately there was news of a new mine 
of even better metal than the rest." Presently (in 
years beyond the scope of this book) , the crown under- 
took the development of the Santiago mines. Manuel 
Nunez Lobo, "a merchant of Santo Domingo," was 
found in sole possession of them and of their few build- 
ings and planted crops. He had acquired their titles 
from those who got them at Bayamo; since it was 
therein specified that these titles were subject to the 
crown's approval, he was ousted without difficulty. 
The mines were worked after 1599 to some effect. 

Governor Carrefio, who arrived in Havana before 
April, 1577, had decided by the following December to 
erect an upper story atop Fuerza. The fort was now 
about done. He explained to the king that this upper 
story was necessary as sleeping quarters for the garrison: 
he had victualled the place and ordered the men to sleep 
inside it. He foresaw that this reform would be un- 
popular, for they were welcome in beds outside; he 
urged that the men's pay be made forthcoming with 
more than usual promptitude or he could maintain no 
garrison in Fuerza at all. Further, this upper story was 
needed as a warehouse in which to keep the powder 
and arms dry (Fuerza itself was too damp!) and it 
could be so built as to prevent an enemy gazing from 
the vantage of the hill across the harbor from seeing 



312 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

everything that transpired within the fort. The truth 
was that Carreno wanted the accommodations he pro- 
posed to arrange, — "a house/' sixty-five by sixteen 
feet with four windows to the harbor, — as a residence 
for himself instead of that bohio near the fort which he 
was expected to occupy. Expropriated in 1559, and 
then bought in to be demolished to clear space around 
Fuerza, it had not yet been paid for, nor removed, but 
was used instead by his predecessors and himself as a 
dwelling. Other houses expropriated at the time were 
still standing and Carreno urged that they all be cleared 
away to give Fuerza's plaza de armas proper contour. 
He meanwhile worked to complete the upper story of 
the fort and determined to move in, despite the royal 
officials' protests that the superstructure he had added 
would become a dangerous nuisance were the fort 
attacked. 

The royal officials at once acquired new interest in the 
custom house (see frontispiece). The cedula of Jan- 
uary 12, 1576, ordering its erection had not been acted 
upon, but in October, 1577, the governor and royal 
officials agreed upon a site, at the water's edge, beside 
the wharf and commanding the entrance to the harbor; 
the town was supposed to own the land, though later a 
question of title and law suits developed, and it offered 
a good rock foundation. Plans calling for a seventy- 
foot building of two stories were approved; the lower 
floor was to be a forty-foot warehouse, plus a fifteen- 
foot office and an entrance as spacious while the upper 
floor was to be used as a residence, presumably of one 
at least of the royal officials. The specifications in- 
cluded a corral for slaves. Materials left over from 
Fuerza were available; ten of the king's negroes were 



MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 313 

set to building. The carpentry and brickwork were let 
on contract and the work progressed, despite the pro- 
tests of some captious persons that the officials were 
spending "splendidly" and the second story was en- 
tirely unnecessary as far as the king's business to be 
transacted in a custom house was concerned. 

Nor were these the only improvements made. The 
tariff had been lowered to 23^% ad valorem on im- 
portations; in 1579 the crown was persuaded to permit 
collection to be resumed at the old rate of 10%, of which 
7M% was to be expended on public improvements. 

Havana was growing. To make room for its expan- 
sion Caceres' ordinances provided that land granted for 
farming purposes might be resumed if wanted for town 
lots. When town lots were assigned to solicitants, 
representatives of the council must be present as the 
boundary lines were drawn, and the ordinances re- 
quired that the city streets be kept straight and that 
good substantial buildings be encouraged. Half the 
buildings now were of adobe instead of palm-board, 
but thatched roofs were still more numerous than tile. 
Failure to improve a lot within six months forfeited 
title to it. 

The free blacks felt the pressure of the city's growth. 
They were now so numerous an element in the popula- 
tion that the crown was at one time advised that the 
forty in Havana who by 1568 had bought their liberty, 
" doubtless with the product of thievery," constituted a 
nuisance in Cuba, and should therefore be deported to 
Florida. Ground occupied by their homes was wanted 
and the inflammable character of these huts was brought 
forward as an argument why they should be removed 
from what was described as the best part of the city. 



314 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Now, too (1574), the crown levied a tax upon free 
blacks; the governor was to determine the amount of 
it above the minimum of a mark of silver a year. Philip 
recited as his reason for imposing this head tax that 
the negroes had previously paid it to their tribal kings ; 
he decided it was due him instead "because they lived 
in his land, were maintained in peace, and having 
crossed as slaves had become free there." I do not re- 
call having seen any evidence that the tax was collected. 
There were other negroes who though still slaves 
nevertheless lived most independently. The men 
labored at trades; the women ran eating houses and 
did washing especially for transient passengers of the 
fleets. They reported their earnings to their masters 
weekly or monthly. The Caceres ordinances required 
that these owners take out a license according to which 
they became responsible for the behavior of their 
blacks; it seems the washerwomen had a trick of not 
delivering the clothes by the time the fleets sailed, 
thus occasioning inconvenience and loss to their patrons 
who could not stay over for a detail of clothes. Fur- 
ther, it was prohibited that these slaves should main- 
tain establishments of their own; they must sleep in 
their masters' houses, nor be found on the streets, unless 
upon their owners' business, after the ringing of a cer- 
tain bell at night. Ordinarily, the blacks might not 
bear arms; there were exceptions made in the case of 
negroes travelling with their masters and on behalf of 
negro cowherds on the ranges, and, it is significant to 
note, those free black citizens who took their turn at 
sentinel duty along the city's seacoast might bear arms 
then unless there was some particular reason why they 
should not. 



MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 315 

Evidently slaves fleeing one master were sometimes 
driven to give themselves up to obtain food and shelter 
of ranchmen who then bought them "on risk/' i. e., 
on the supposition that they were still at large, of 
masters whom they did not inform of the facts in the 
case. Caceres' ordinances endeavored to end this dis- 
honesty: they required that runaway slaves be reported 
when located. Cruel, excessive punishments which 
occasioned death and suicide were prohibited and inas- 
much as some owners declined to clothe and feed their 
slaves, expecting them to live off the neighbors, it was 
ordered that "sufficient" food be given to them and 
that they be provided with at least two outfits of 
clothing a year. 

The council for the Indies at this time advised the 
king to call a halt on the too prodigal granting of 
licenses to import slaves into the Indies: there was 
black rebellion on the mainland (Nombre de Dios) and 
in Mexico and as much was feared in La Espafiola, — 
"in general in the Indies there is a very much larger 
population of negroes than of Spaniards." The king 
forthwith revoked a concession to admit 300 into Cuba 
which had been granted in 1576. The greatest demand 
for slaves came from the east end of the island, — in 1579 
Santiago was refused a request for a thousand, while at 
the same time Governor Carrerio's advice that another 
thousand be brought in especially to work mines was, 
apparently, ignored. Investigation showed the law- 
ful importation of blacks into Havana at this time to be 
very small indeed. There can be no doubt, neverthe- 
less, that along the south-east coast French, Portuguese 
and English corsairs were supplying a larger demand. 

The hospital of Havana was still in very humble cir- 



316 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

cumstances : it is described as consisting of two rooms 
and a desolate chapel. For its support the crown con- 
tinued to appropriate one-half the fines imposed in the 
local court for petty offences, and Juan Diaz Aldeano de 
Mendoza, cura, who described himself as of noble birth 
and decent life, begged through the town on Sundays on 
its behalf. He gave silk and gold vestments and a silver 
cup to the parish church. 

Two monasteries, — the Dominican and the Fran- 
ciscan, — had been established and travelling friars of 
these orders arriving in Havana now found shelter 
among their own, instead of being obliged to seek it in 
lodging houses sometimes of ill repute. The buildings 
were at first humble bohios; they improved when the 
king's negroes were lent by way of royal alms to labor 
upon them. Each monastery sheltered a half dozen or 
fewer permanent habitants, but when the fleets came in 
the number of religious was quadrupled. Havana was 
unequal to the task of supporting them easily and Fray 
Francisco de la Cruz, commissary for the Franciscans 
and guardian of their monastery, and Fray Diego de 
Carvajal for the Dominicans, sought the king's favor 
insistently in these years. The Franciscans made 
themselves very comfortable indeed "on a good site, 
some distance from the sea," and the people of Havana 
said they had given them the lot of land occupied and 
more than three thousand ducats toward their mon- 
astery and church; the guardian, however, evidently 
dissatisfied with its location, for four hundred ducats 
bought other land near the sea (evidently the site of the 
present customs house of Havana, the abandoned 
Franciscan convent) and toward building an edifice he 
proposed to erect there the king ordered that lumber 



MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 317 

and lime be provided at the crown's expense. Both 
Franciscan monasteries (that of Havana and that of 
Santiago), and, later, the Dominican, were supplied 
with a certain amount of oil and wine by the king for 
many years. The Franciscans asked and seem to have 
obtained control of the village of Guanabacoa (its 
Cubefios paid well for the comforts of religion) and this 
order was placed in charge of other Indians who resided 
in that part of Havana known as "Campeche ward." 
The governor received general instructions to encourage 
Indians to attend the teachings of the Franciscans. 
The Dominicans also requested the use of the king's 
slaves. The Dominican monastery of Havana was 
headquarters of the order over a territory which em- 
braced Porto Rico, La Margarita, Jamaica and Florida. 
The Jesuits also had an humble establishment in Ha- 
vana at this period, a "straw" house occupied by four 
monks, until their general ordered them to Mexico 
because they had no means of support. Carreno en- 
deavored to raise funds to retain them and there was 
more talk of a Jesuit school, — evidently that one planned 
in Menendez' time had not nourished. There was fric- 
tion between the heads of both monasteries and the 
bishop, who in selecting incumbents for church offices 
through the island preferred, they said, " vagabond, 
apostate" priests; he for his part lamented that the 
existence of these two monasteries cut down the incomes 
of his subordinates, for the people could give only so 
much to religion and it was inconvenient to share it 
among too many. The governor, at odds with the 
bishop and by him excommunicated, believed that the 
guardians of the monasteries should enjoy something 
of the authority of a court of appeal against such ex- 



318 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

communication, since appeal to the bishop's superior, 
the archbishop of Santo Domingo, was a lengthy pro- 
cedure. 

The bishop in these days was Maestro Castillo of 
Salamanca University. Bishop Duranga had died and 
his mother was endeavoring to collect money due from 
his estate. Dr. Bernaldino de Villapando who succeeded 
him in May, 1560, had reached Havana a year later, 
travelled through the island, and departed presumably 
for Mexico (perhaps with moneys not rightfully his to 
take) before the end of July, 1563; he was later nom- 
inated to be bishop of Guatemala. Maestro Castillo 
arrived in Havana on March 15, 1570, via Santo 
Domingo and Santiago. In Santo Domingo he offended 
the archbishop by claiming Jamaica, because of its 
geographical position, as part of his bishopric; he car- 
ried his point and later visited that island, discord 
marking his itinerary. Arrived in Havana, Maestro 
Castillo immediately fell out with the royal officials as 
to his salary: tithes they were collecting were not 
enough to pay it, and the officials were ordered to make 
good the deficit. Eventually it became necessary to 
call upon Panama for a balance due and the bishop 
complained that he got it in depreciated silver. Dis- 
satisfied with the results of the royal officials' methods 
of collecting tithes, the bishop undertook, or so it was 
charged, to collect them himself even on the hides of 
"wild" cattle: the crown ordered him to refrain from 
meddling in the officials' affairs. All this was a reflec- 
tion of Philip's own strife with the Pope for suprem- 
acy of the crown in Spanish church affairs. Maestro 
Castillo had trouble with the clergy and made un- 
popular appointments. He was disliked by the laity 



MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 319 

not only because he was strenuous in matter of tithes 
but also because he sought to reform the colonists' 
morals: on both points they were always sensitive! 
He travelled through the island and having seen San- 
tiago, preferred Bayamo for his residence as his pred- 
ecessor had done despite the detail that his cathedral 
was in the former neglected city. Bayamo was, he 
said, the best of the island's settlements; he desired to 
see a substantial church erected there. 

This desire doubtless led him to take a very keen 
interest in the will of Francisco de Parada. The ac- 
countant Duran who was in Santiago when Parada 
died (May 24, 1571), estimated the estate at a hundred 
thousand ducats. In his will Parada left certain cattle 
ranches which he owned between Bayamo and the 
coast, to be administered for the benefit of a church to 
be erected of brick or masonry in Bayamo. Among 
details concerning it he specified that one of its chap- 
lains was "to read grammar to all the children of 
residents of Bayamo and to any others who wish to 
hear." Incidentally, it may be said here that there had 
long been a school-teacher attached to the cathedral in 
Santiago, — Bachiller Sancho de Cespedes was "pre- 
sented" for the post on May 16, 1523, a former ap- 
pointee never having taken possession; on March 21, 
1539, Bachiller Andrada succeeded Cespedes, deceased. 
Parada's will was a fine fat bone for contention, for the 
bishop and for local civil authorities, for lawyers and for 
clerks, conducting suits and countersuits with respect 
to it: out of it Bayamo had not in Castillo's time got 
any church at all, — neither the hermitage which the 
town council insisted was what should be built, nor 
parochial church as the bishop declared Parada in- 



320 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

tended, though at various times lumber and tile were 
prepared with building in view. Eventually the crown 
ordered what was left of Parada's property gathered 
together and removed from the control of his executors. 
What actually became of the herds of horned cattle and 
the black humans who once " populated" his pastures 
down Yara way between Bayamo and Cape Cruz, where 
they used to burn all save a few pastures as a quick 
means to round the stock up on these, and where 
Sebastian de Almeyda, overseer, kept open house to 
travellers bound to and from Manzanilia, — always 
excepting the bishop and his suite, — is a tale left for 
them to tell who have the patience to peruse the tomes 
of manuscript evidence taken in the case. 

The churches of the island requested, during these 
years, alms from the king to provide retablos for their 
altars and other furnishings; he gave more than was 
actually made effective. Rojas de Avellaneda had 
roofed the adobe and brick church which its citizens 
had built for Havana, and Calona drew plans and made 
estimates for a tower, and the king was asked to fur- 
nish lime and brick and slaves to build it and the 
sacristy. This church had one bell and wanted three 
more. In other towns curas were scarce, ill paid if paid 
at all, and correspondingly disinterested in their flocks. 
Through the center of the island the people "died and 
buried each other " in most unchristian fashion, — San- 
tiago was considered especially unhealthy. 

Maestro Castillo, "for his conscience' sake," resigned 
the bishopric of Cuba, and was in May, 1579, author- 
ized to return to Spain. In requesting leave to resign 
Bishop Castillo painted his flock black indeed, de- 
scribing them as mostly mestizos and negroes, unfit 



MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 321 

associates for him who was well-born and educated; 
they had made against him "the most enormous ac- 
cusations ever entered against any man in this world," 
they were incorrigible in their iniquities, and he had 
developed "a natural fear" of them which so disturbed 
him that he could not study nor preach nor eat nor 
sleep, — no sacristan in all the Indies was as miserable 
as he! It is not recorded that the city of Bayamo, 
where the bishop had insisted on residing despite 
orders to make his home in Santiago where his cathe- 
dral was, saw Maestro Castillo depart with any regret. 
He had lived and caused others to live wherever he 
went a life made strenuous with quarrels. He quarrelled 
with the archbishop of Santo Domingo. He quarrelled 
with the governors, with both Montalvo and Carrefio 
whom in turn he excommunicated, — '"and this is no 
country," Carrefio exclaimed, "in which to pass a 
single night excommunicated!" He quarrelled with 
the royal officials from whom he differed concerning 
tithes and tariffs. He had scandalized the pious Cal- 
villo by his lack of dignity in dress, shocked him by his 
claim to be so well lettered that he could have held his 
own with Augustine himself had that good saint lived 
in his day, and pained him to a degree by having that 
part of his salary due him from outside Cuba to make 
up the inevitable deficit between tithes and its total 
brought to him in merchandise, — in Rouen silks and 
canvas, etc., — which he resold at twice what they cost 
him. "He buys wine when it is cheap, and disposes of 
it when it is dear," Calvillo wrote the king, "and this 
is the only charity that any man has seen him extend 
to his flock." 

Governor Carrefio fell ill very early (January) in 



322 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

1579 ("de cierta pasion de orinas"); by February his 
condition had become so serious that the treasurer 
Rojas foresaw his death and wrote urging the king to 
issue instructions to the town council as to what course 
to pursue in such contingency. The governor himself 
was not unaware of his condition and in March made 
Rojas captain of Fuerza during his pleasure or, in case 
of his death, until the king should otherwise provide. 
Rojas took charge of the fort three days later. Carrefio 
expired on April 27, "and confusion followed, the solu- 
tion of which was that the justicia ordinaria (i. e., the 
alcaldes) of this city (Havana) assumed the govern- 
ment," and all the island remained tranquil. The 
people of the town informed the king of these events 
and asked that he appoint as his successor Diego de 
Ribera who, for Menendez, had governed "with pru- 
dence and zeal for your majesty's service and to the 
satisfaction of the people." Ribera was treasurer of 
the armada and his apparent popularity may have 
been influenced by relationship to Carrefio whose widow 
was Catalina de Ribera, and the fact that he was in 
Havana at the time of Carreiio's death. 

The governor had summoned his lieutenant, San- 
tiesteban, from Bayamo but the licenciado did not 
arrive until shortly after Carreno's demise. The city 
council claimed that Santiesteban's authority ended 
with Carreno's life; the lieutenant-governor denied 
this, but, failing to convince them, to avoid "scandal," 
he abandoned exercise of his office until the crown, so 
he wrote to his majesty, could be heard from, and 
meanwhile he advised the audiencia of Santo Domingo 
of the situation. In the following July Lie. Santieste- 
ban was dismissed from office for having married a 



MONTALVO AND CARRENO (1573-1579) 323 

Bayamo girl, thereby, the law presumed, acquiring re- 
lationships and so prejudices which made it impossible 
for him to be an impartial judge. 

The audiencia of Santo Domingo sent the Lie. 
Gaspar de Torres, a Dominican by birth, as governor 
of Cuba pro tempore, on half Carrefio's pay. He arrived 
October 3rd, 1579. Of his administration little has 
come to my hand save complaints made, especially 
by the treasurer, Juan Bautista de Rojas. He was un- 
accustomed to speak well of any governor he did not 
bias and this suggests that Geronimo Rojas de Avel- 
laneda stood nearer the Lie. Torres than he. The land 
was, the treasurer said, extraordinarily afflicted under 
Torres with calamities, grievances and insults. Torres, 
Rojas said, in a few months did more damage, col- 
lected more booty, than all the other governors Cuba 
had had since its earliest settlement. In his residencia 
later Torres was sentenced to refund more than four 
thousand ducats improperly collected, and it was es- 
timated that he made some six thousand during his 
sojourn in Cuba. The crown was informed that he 
fled to escape the consequences of his administration 
which fell heavy on his bondsmen. 



CHAPTER XX 

LUXAN AND QUINONES (1579-1586) 

"Ninguno de vosotros trata de conservar lo que le toca sino de 
querer lo que al otro pertenesce." — The king to Luxan and 
Quinones. A. de I., 79-4-2. Y 5, p. 76. 

"Halle la tierra ardiendo en pasiones." — Garcia Fernandez 
de Torrequemada, A del., 54-2-3. 

On September 1, 1579, to succeed Carreno as governor 
of Cuba, the king appointed Captain Gabriel de Luxan, 
who had served him more than twenty years in wars in 
the Low Countries, in Italy and elsewhere. Luxan's 
appointment was for four years and his salary the 
same that his predecessors' had been, regardless of the 
royal officials' earnest recommendation that it be re- 
duced. Lie. Juan de Minas Ceballos was made his 
letrado lieutenant-governor with the usual pay. Luxan 
did not arrive in Cuba until August, 1580. On the 
17th of that month he was received by the council. 
His administration was one long series of quarrels 
arising out of the most despicable petty jealousies 
among the island authorities. 

In 1579 don Jorge de Baeza y Carvajal, "a noble," 
who had served in Flanders and elsewhere, "and is 
held to be a good soldier," was by royal commission 
made alferez mayor in Cuba. Don Jorge had bought 
the position in accordance with a cedula issued in 1559 
offering it for sale. He arrived in Havana on May 13, 
1580, and was received by Lie. Torres. The documents 

324 



LUXAN AND QUINONES (1579-1586)) 325 

issued to him in relation to his commission constituted 
sound claim to "voice and vote" in the city council, 
and to "a seat in front of and before all the regidores," 
immediately behind the alcaldes. They conferred, too, 
he claimed, the right to wear a sword at sessions of that 
body "as other alferezes do." Immediate protest 
arose that especially this latter privilege was one not 
the governor himself enjoyed, but don Jorge seems to 
have carried his point and so presumably also his sword 
in council sessions. 

At the same time that don Jorge was commissioned 
a cedula was issued to the effect that the royal officials 
were to be given principal place in council meetings, 
in church and elsewhere, as was but "decent" in view of 
the fact that their positions were eminent. Caceres' 
ordinances (1574) show the treasurer seated upon the 
governor's right hand and the accountant upon his left. 
The officials claimed that rich citizens, countenanced by 
the governor, had been permitted to precede them, an 
affront they resented because they were the king's 
servants and there was no man of title nor knight in 
the country; none, that is, with a right to outrank them. 
Rich they may have been, but no vecino of Cuba had 
as yet attained to membership in distinguished orders 
(like that of St. James) nor to even the lowest title of 
Spanish nobility. 

Therefore the small honors of local office were the 
more to be desired and defended. Hot disputes arose 
over the question of priority in signing council papers: 
Caceres decided that after the governor the oldest 
regidor in point of service should sign; next after him the 
officials and then the rest of the council, and the council 
clerk last of all. When it came to speaking in sessions 



326 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

and voting, the royal officials demanded to be heard 
first; there were not lacking councilmen to remind them 
that they were members of that body not by reason of 
their offices as treasurer and accountant but on the 
strength of quite separate appointments as regidores 
perpetuos similar to those other members held which 
therefore placed them on an equality with the rest, 
length of service alone constituting any recognizable 
preeminence. That debate on differences like these and 
similar weighty matters might not become too strenu- 
ous, Caceres forbade persons attending council sessions 
to wear sword or dagger (hence the vigorous objection 
to don Jorge de Baeza's exception from this privation) ; 
penalty for so doing was confiscation of the arms, and, 
in case of the insidious dagger, exclusion from ses- 
sions for two months. A speaker who had the floor 
was not to be interrupted; " temperance and modesty " 
were to prevail in the course of arguments, and the 
majority ruled. 

The council met weekly, presumably on Fridays, 
in these years; no special summons to attend regular 
sessions was required excepting when unusually im- 
portant business was to come up or elections of alcaldes 
were to be held. Attendance was compulsory, on pen- 
alty of fine; but absence from the city as well as sickness 
seem to have been valid excuses for non-appearance at 
meetings. The governor, and alcalde and three regidores 
constituted a quorum, but if all other members were 
out of town two councilmen only in addition to the 
governor and an alcalde might act. Special sessions 
might be called by either alcalde or the governor in 
which case all councilmen must be summoned in person 
by notary. Even when there was no business to trans- 



LUXAN AND QUINONES (1579-1586) 327 

act the council must remain in session at least an hour 
weekly, time it was to devote to a general discussion of 
the public welfare. 

The Caceres ordinances provided that the governor 
and his lieutenant should withdraw from the council 
meeting whenever that body set about inditing any 
communication to the crown. 

On New Year's Day the regidores elected two alcaldes 
from among themselves. Caceres' ordinances provided 
that in this election neither the governor nor his lieu- 
tenant might vote and the crown was especially en- 
treated to approve this provision. Alcaldes were not 
eligible to succeed themselves in office. They were re- 
quired to execute the council's rulings without seeking 
to delay or alter them. They remained primarily judges 
of cases at law. From them appeal was still to the 
governor and beyond him to Santo Domingo. 

The alcaldes were required to reside within the town 
seat of their jurisdiction and to grant audiences every 
afternoon. They were required also to visit outlying 
cattle ranges, hog ranches and farms of their municipal- 
ity to dispense justice there, on which matters they were 
to report to the council. Tradition hints that these 
visitations were not too welcome to owners of estates, 
for sometimes the alcaldes were not averse to being re- 
imbursed for their trouble, the amount of the remu- 
neration having occasionally an influence upon their 
view of the gravity of offences brought to their atten- 
tion. 

Neither the alcaldes nor the councilmen received 
salaries. They were however remunerated by way of 
fees. The regidores took monthly turns at inspecting 
the meat and fish markets; it was the inspecting council- 



328 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

man's duty to see that cleanliness and fair weights and 
measures prevailed. Penalties for infractions of the law 
in these respects were provided and in cases where they 
involved corporal punishment, banishment or a fine 
over twenty thousand maravedis in amount, the gov- 
ernor and the alcalde joined the inspecting council- 
man in passing judgment in the matter. Appeal from 
the councilman's decisions in minor cases was to the 
governor; from the governor's, it was to the council, 
but no appeal might be taken until the amount of any 
fine first levied had been deposited. All cases arising 
out of infractions of the city's law must be settled 
within eight days or the accused was automatically 
discharged without costs. Appeals must be taken 
within fifteen days and settled within another fifteen. 
It was Dr. Caceres' opinion that the law's delay in Cuba 
was a matter demanding reform; he complained to the 
king that there were altogether too many actions 
brought " especially for a country where they are 
handled so inexpertly." To further discourage litiga- 
tion Dr. Caceres in his ordinances specified small fees 
to be paid the regidor, alcalde and clerk before whom 
suits for violations of municipal law came for hearing. 
It is impossible to exaggerate the importance Cuba's 
residents attached to holding these municipal offices: 
the pay and the inherent opportunities for " graft" 
which they carried, while not despised, were neverthe- 
less of less moment to the incumbents than the priv- 
ileges they conferred of occupying a specified place of 
honor not only in council meetings, but in religious 
processions, and at church. If his position entitled a 
man to carry a cushion or a chair to church, he was not 
to be bereft of that chair or cushion, — not if he could 



LUXAN AND QUINONES (1579-1586) 329 

prevent it by making the welkin ring about the ears 
of the king of Spain who, certainly, heard of such 
matters in as great detail as he could hear of any that 
involved his empire's rise or fall. 

The Rojas were still the leading citizens of the island. 
Juan de Ynestrosa having died (January 6, 1571, aged 
about fifty) Juan Bautista de Rojas had, as said, suc- 
ceeded him as treasurer. Juan Bautista was not the 
undisputed head of the now very numerous Rojas clan. 
When Juan de Rojas died, shortly after Ynestrosa, 
Geronimo de Rojas y Avellaneda, another nephew, 
inherited the bulk of that merchant's estate. During 
his life Juan de Rojas had kept open house to Franciscan 
friars passing through Havana and in his will he sought 
to continue the hospitality which had made him famous; 
Fray Francisco de Ribera, commissary of the order in 
Mexico, understood that Rojas left a bequest to found 
a Franciscan monastery in Havana and in 1573 pro- 
tested that such provision had not been fulfilled. What- 
ever may have been Juan de Rojas' intention, his heir 
neglected the Franciscans although he applied money 
to the parish church and shortly after a generous ex- 
penditure of 8000 ducats upon it he asked as a reward 
that the king permit him to import fifty slaves into the 
island free of licenses, and was refused the favor. Juan 
de Rojas' wife, Dona Maria de Lobera (who died before 
1565) in making her bequests had favored the Domin- 
ican monastery of her home, Pontevedra in Spain. 

Diego de Soto, a Rojas, was perhaps the most dis- 
tinguished of the family when Montalvo, landing in 
eastern Cuba, made him his representative in Havana 
until such time as he should arrive there. De Soto 
seems to have come to Cuba in 1529 or thereabouts; he 



330 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

had raised a large family and he had cultivated to 
" vineyard and orchard" land which the town council 
had granted to him; his estate apparently included 
within its boundaries what are now railroad yards and 
the terminal station in Havana, title to which was 
doubtless confirmed to him after his request to that 
effect in 1569. 

Anton Recio, who in 1569 became a regidor of Havana 
in place of Juan de Lobera, deceased before 1560, was 
the principal man in town outside the Rojas' faction. 
He owned ranches in many places, and town lots on the 
plaza de armas; in the neighborhood of Guanabacoa his 
negroes and cattle had long troubled the Cubenos of 
that village. In 1566 he bought of Governor Mazariegos 
the office of depositary general for eight hundred 
ducats; Osorio objected to recognizing him but on 
December 15, 1567, the king conferred the title on him 
for life. It was his duty (and his privilege!) to receive 
and hold for safe-keeping valuables of all sorts (money, 
chattels, real estate) which for any reason whatsoever 
passed from their owners' hands and awaited instruc- 
tions as to disposal. For protecting these against 
danger (which meant corsairs) he was entitled to 23^% 
interest on the amounts involved. Formerly, the gov- 
ernors had distributed the administration of such prop- 
erty among their friends, — it was a notorious method of 
extending profitable favor, for the friends flourished on 
what was in effect borrowed capital which instead of 
drawing interest, paid it; and successful litigants and 
heirs to persons deceased often had very great difficulty 
in regaining possession of their property at all. Recio 
as depositary general gave bond and was required to 
keep accounts: it was charged that he kept them care- 



LUXAN AND QUINONES (1579-1586) 331 

lessly. He was one of the earliest settlers in Havana; 
he had served valiantly against French corsairs. He 
estimated his wealth at twenty thousand ducats. His 
wife, Catalina Hernandez, bore him no children; there- 
fore they legitimized Juan and Maria Recio, his by 
another mother, who was a Cubefia. This Juan Recio 
was then made heir to the first entailed estate of which 
I have seen any record among Cuban papers. Chief 
treasures of his heritage were a gold-handled sword and 
a gold-handled dagger and a silver table-service. After 
these were listed houses and lands and slaves and herds 
of horned cattle and hogs. 

There appears to have been no alcaide in Havana 
since Lobera's death. The post of captain of Fuerza, 
however, existed, salary 300 ducats per annum, the 
incumbent to be named by the governor. After Bar- 
reda, who served under Menendez, governors had kept 
this office for themselves and drawn the pay, but 
Carreno gave it to his fifteen-year-old son, explaining 
that although the lad was clever in military matters, 
his incumbency was merely nominal, — -he the governor 
held the key to the fort, locked the gate with it nightly 
(the soldiers being inside, for the sake of good discipline 
and the town's morality) and slept with that key under 
his own pillow! Now, however, Captain Melchor 
Sardo de Arana was made captain of Fuerza on royal 
commission; he was subordinate to Governor Luxan, 
with whom he arrived in Havana (1580) . The day after 
landing he and his wife, — Dona Theodora Oricat, who 
presently became bedridden, — his " burden" of mother- 
in-law of "much quality and virtue," and two depend- 
ent nieces, took possession of Fuerza and command of its 
garrison. The fort was almost done, the captain said; 



332 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

and entering vessels were (after 1579) saluting it, in 
recognition of its importance as a stronghold of the 
king. Nevertheless, it was too damp to be a comfort- 
able habitation. Of the garrison of fifty men, ten were 
invalids because of the humidity of the place. All were 
in want for lack of regular pay. The captain suggested 
that as soon as the fort was finished the slaves working 
on it should be sold off to provide supplies. Persistent 
demands for artillery had enlarged Fuerza's batteries 
but of the fourteen guns delivered to him (not including 
two which were quite useless) Sardo de Arana considered 
eight only to be of account. There were some muni- 
tions, — thirty barrels of powder, fuse, lead, sulphur, 
some arquebuses and "a heap " of shot. 

Unsatisfactory as Captain Melchor Sardo de Arana 
found Fuerza its upper story as Carreno had added it 
was the most imposing residence in town, and it fell 
to him despite the fact that Governor Luxan was his 
superior. The governor therefore turned his attention 
toward the custom house, in course of construction. 
It was suffering damage by reason of neglect: because 
of a dispute as to title to the site, Lie. Torres had halted 
work on it. Lumber prepared for it had disappeared. 
Luxan took numerous depositions to the effect that it 
was the conviction of all that the building should be 
completed (although he recorded his opinion that it 
was so situated it might be considered a menace to 
Fuerza) and he then applied the fort's negroes and ma- 
terials to that end. Roof, windows and doors had been 
lacking. By December (1580) he was planning to move 
into the building's upper story, which clearly chagrined 
the royal officials who had intended those quarters as 
a becoming residence for at least one of themselves. 



LUXAN AND QUINONES (1579-1586) 333 

Duran having died he was succeeded in his office 
of accountant by Juan Bautista Roman who, in turn, 
was appointed to the Philippines; his departure had 
been delayed by Carreno's death. Pedro de Arana 
succeeded him, arriving on the scene like Luxan and 
Sardo de Arana in August, 1580, accompanied by debts, 
it was said, to a total of over a thousand ducats, which 
Rojas (still treasurer) accused him of increasing by 
500 more lost in gambling; Arana also possessed an 
inclination to find in trade a means to pay off his obli- 
gations. It will be recalled that royal officials were 
forbidden to engage in trade. He was from the time 
of his arrival accused of doing business, of immediately 
purchasing a half interest in a vessel plying to Yucatan 
and of despatching it with a cargo on which duty was 
not properly paid. By January, 1581, Luxan had begun 
an investigation into Arana's conduct in this respect. 

Certainly Arana seems to have been little pleased 
with his official position, since as early as December, 
1580, he requested transfer to the treasury ship of 
Cartagena. He said that he had too little to do. In- 
deed, he was an active character, and part of his leisure 
he occupied in inditing long and bustling communica- 
tions to the crown. He had his views on every current 
topic; he even undertook to raise treasure lost in 
wrecked ships (corsairs wiped out his expedition) 
and he entertained plans to "populate" with cattle 
the island of Bermuda! He became engaged to marry 
Captain Barreda's widow; she died, and "out of love 
of their mother " he raised her two sons to be useful 
men. 

Arana was particularly displeased to see Governor 
Luxan remove from the bohios near Fuerza which had 



334 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

been the governor's residence since Mazariegos' time, 
to the upper story of the custom house; the accountant 
held that the king's money had not been spent on that 
building to extend such hospitality to the governor, — 
though he remarked at the same time that the quarters 
in question would serve nicely as the residence of one 
official (and Rojas had his own house in town). These 
views, however, Arana was powerless to enforce, so 
helpless were "humbled officials on very short salaries 
as against tyrannical governors." Occupancy of the 
second floor of the customs house was a root of grave 
differences all through Luxan's governorship. Luxan 
moved in, was ordered out, and did actually remove, 
only to return and eventually hold the premises. 

By the summer of 1581 Arana was violently at odds 
with the governor and with the treasurer Rojas, and so, 
therefore, with the city council which Rojas dominated. 
Charges and counter-charges were exchanged, — surely 
enough to convince the crown that none of the trio 
was to be trusted in any sense or in any capacity. On 
All Saints' Day (October, 1581) Luxan searched Arana's 
house, arrested the accountant and placed him at first 
in the common jail, but later confined him in chains to 
Fuerza. Captain Sardo de Arana was so thoroughly 
in sympathy with his namesake (who was however no 
relation) that he refused to make this arrest, calling 
Luxan's attention to the fact that there were in Havana 
sheriffs and a high sheriff to boot. The captain him- 
self thereby incurred the governor's displeasure and 
was incarcerated in the city hall and Juan Vargas de 
Ferrer, Luxan's brother-in-law, placed in command of 
Fuerza. Later Sardo de Arana was removed to his own 
fort where he passed a month in confinement under his 



LUXAN AND QUINONES (1579-1586) 335 

sergeant, a circumstance which did not, he declared, 
make for easy maintenance of good discipline thereafter. 
A royal cedula ordering the governor to make a secret 
investigation of charges against the accountant found 
Luxan already engaged in that to him by no means 
ungrateful task. He had discovered in Arana's affairs, 
he said, "many indecencies," and proposed to suspend 
him from office as soon as the regular yearly auditing 
of accounts was done. This investigation seems not 
to have been so quietly conducted but that Arana was 
informed of the governor's intentions toward him; 
he foresaw that he was to be suspended, as he was on 
March 13, 1582, Manuel Diaz being put temporarily 
in his place. His key to the royal strong box was taken 
from him by force. With letters of recommenda- 
tion of his administration and with friends to bear 
witness to his allegations against Luxan, Arana one 
day " dawned absent," as it reads in the Spanish: he 
had betaken himself to Santo Domingo hoping that the 
audiencia there would act in his behalf. 

Captain Sardo de Arana's berth was made almost 
as uncomfortable for him. Unquestionably Luxan was 
jealous of the captain's authority; the governor declared 
that to appoint the commandant of Fuerza should be 
his prerogative, and the accountant Arana suggested 
that Luxan' s real desire was to control the money appro- 
priated for the garrison's pay. Charges brought against 
Sardo de Arana are too prettily significant of the spirit 
which prevailed in Havana under Luxan to be omitted 
from rather full relation: Luxan said that the post of 
captain of Fuerza was no place for a married man, — ■ 
that Sardo de Arana's wife and mother-in-law converted 
the garrison into a personal retinue; formal testimony 



336 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

was solemnly taken to prove that the captain himself 
was "a low person," — he was, the witnesses swore, 
an unfillable eater, invariably willing to dine regardless 
of the quality of his host; in negligee he had been seen 
at the market purchasing meat for his family's con- 
sumption, and he once bought of a street vendor a 
roasted banana which he consumed there and then, 
and, it was particularly stated, he burned his mouth in 
so doing. Sardo de Arana had a faculty for mimicry, 
and a slave woman gave evidence against him that once 
in the kitchen of Master-of-the-works Calona's house 
she had seen the captain, wearing a petticoat and a 
turban, amusing Mrs. Calona and her daughter with 
too accurate representations of a woman of the streets 
soliciting business. The ladies appreciated the show; 
it is on record that they laughed uproariously. The 
council for the Indies, doubtless Philip himself, took 
time to read this sort of information from their American 
possessions. It is interesting to note that although at 
this very time the council was seriously searching for 
Sardo de Arana' s successor, that body took pains to 
inform the king that "it "was not known that he had 
done anything unbecoming." 

As early as January 2, 1582, the crown was inclined 
to strengthen Havana by the appointment for Fuerza 
of an alcaide, competent to command an increased 
garrison and to assure the safety of the place. Captain 
Diego Fernandez de Quinones was selected; the year 
before he had been promised command of a castle in 
the Indies, at a salary of 1200 ducats, whereas that 
of Fuerza carried but 800 ducats, a detail concerning 
which he complained. He accepted the appointment, 
however, on April 7, 1582. 



£UXAN AND QUINONES (1579-1586) 337 

Now, in addition to his commission as governor of the 
island, Luxan had by subsequent cedula been made 
captain-general "for the term of his governorship." 
Carrerio before him had been called by that title, but I 
believe this was a courtesy reminiscent of his service 
in the navy. The intention was evidently to make 
Luxan not inferior in rank to generals of armadas and 
admirals of the fleets with whom he was associated 
during their calls in port; the title carried, however, 
additional authority in military matters, and on the 
strength of it the governor, or so Captain Sardo de 
Arana complained, " robbed him (the captain merely of 
Fuerza) of all save the shadow of such captaincy." 

Quinones' appointment was in conflict with Luxan's 
as captain-general. Both king and council recognized 
that fact. The king was of the opinion that gov- 
ernor and alcaide should be one and the same person; 
the council believed the colony had developed to a 
point to warrant the division of the offices. Quiii- 
ones' commission, his instructions and the provisions 
issued to and concerning him, were an attempt to 
reconcile this difference of opinion and to palliate the 
conflict of jurisdictions. The king ordered it specified 
that the alcaide was not subordinate to the governor. 
The council reported that it had endeavored to make 
quite clear to both the relation they were to bear to each 
other, in order to obviate friction. If differences arose 
they were to be referred for settlement to the audiencia 
of Santo Domingo. On the margin of the council's 
communication to this effect Philip wrote that in cases 
at law involving soldiers the alcaide was to have sole 
jurisdiction; when civilians and soldiers both were con- 
cerned he and the governor were to have joint jurisdic- 



338 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

tion. In any disagreement between them the oldest, 
in date of appointment, of the royal officials of Cuba 
was to have the decision " because in consulting with 
Santo Domingo there would be much delay." These 
matters were shaped into formal cedulas dated April 13, 
1582, and there is evidence that Quinones was bidden 
to speed his departure, for he left Spain without an 
audience with the king. Governor Luxan was duly 
informed of these matters and he and the alcaide were 
instructed not to quarrel. Even before Quinones ar- 
rived Luxan began to protest vigorously against his 
appointment. Things had been disorderly enough, he 
said, with a captain subordinate to him in command of 
Fuerza and its garrison; the naming of an independent 
alcaide over a larger number of men was " inconvenient." 
He protested that his record of twenty-nine years' 
service rendered him worthy to be vested with full 
authority. By God and his conscience he assured the 
king that the governor of the island should have entire 
charge of it. The people, he declared, were "in tribula- 
tion" at the news of the different provision which had 
been made. The town council entered its protest and 
Luxan asked to be transferred to Cartagena. 

Quinones arrived in Havana on July 13, 1582, and he 
took command of Fuerza on the 15th. The fort was 
now complete, according to the original plans, except 
for the moat. Soldiers he brought with him seem to 
have raised the garrison to a strength of 120 men. On 
the council's recommendation, which the king accepted 
doubtfully, Quinones was ordered to employ Cap- 
tain Melchor Sardo " pleasantly," and to accept his 
counsel and advice. Accordingly Quinones made him 
his second in command and so continued him at 280 



LUXAN AND QUINONES (1579-1586) 339 

ducats pay out of the soldiers' premiums, which caused 
them to complain and discouraged recruiting, until, 
Quinones said, Sardo de Arana's entire failure to attend 
to what duties did devolve upon him, compelled the 
alcaide to replace him. 

Before the end of August Quinones and Luxan were 
in conflict over the case of a soldier and a civilian who 
had quarrelled. There was no reconciling them, per- 
haps because as one priest said, when the clergy took 
a hand in the matter, both were competent men, deter- 
mined to serve the crown, and there was a real conflict 
between their legitimate jurisdictions. A half dozen 
big packages of documents at Seville are the record of 
the disturbance which distracted the colony as they 
struggled for years one against the other. These papers 
are replete with picturesque details. For instance, one 
of Quiiiones' garrison (gay with a red silk sash and gold 
ornaments) paid a vulgar compliment to a girl who, the 
student is assured, was modestly " covered with her 
shawl" when he happened to pass her in her doorway: 
and the governor took formal testimony as to the very 
words the gallant uttered, to show that Quiiiones' men 
were beyond all control. Quinones, through the be- 
fogging cloud of evidence, shows like a rough soldier 
of his time, intent upon attending to the soldier's busi- 
ness entrusted to him. He had very great contempt for 
Luxan' s knowledge of military affairs; the governor did 
not, he said, know how to fire an arquebus "afoot or on 
horseback ! " The townspeople were ' ' hens." Knowing 
full well where the alcaide would be caught, the governor 
had a sudden call "To arms!" sounded one night when 
no danger threatened, and Quinones rushed forth from 
a certain fair lady's house in elegant attire. "Very 



,340 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

gallant" he was, in his white boots. " Behold," the 
governor wrote, " what weapons he flourishes in your 
majesty's service!" The alcaide entered no defence: "I 
am a sinner," he exclaimed, ' ' but I never forced a woman 
yet!" Wherefore he trusted "in God's mercy and the 
king's clemency." 

As may be surmised, the townspeople of Havana fared 
ill between these two. Backed as he was by the Rojas, 
the governor was able to present the appearance of the 
people's approval, and the citizens were made to seem 
to protest against the alcaide, against his bad manners, 
against his armed escort, and against his welcoming 
into the fort certain delinquents to shelter them there 
from justice. Nevertheless, documents of other tenor 
purporting to bear the signatures of vecinos reached the 
king, with bitter complaints against Luxan and the 
lamentation that the crown ignored Havana's com- 
munications because Philip held its inhabitants to be 
merely "a lot of inn-keepers." Some, they admitted, 
did continue to earn their living by extending hospital- 
ity for pay to the people of passing fleets, but there were 
others who like their ancestors had served the king: 
"very eminent persons, well born and gentlemen, and 
other very honorable men, who are above that cat- 
egory," — of inn-keepers. Havana had, these petitioners 
said, "endured turmoil ever since Luxan entered upon 
his administration." 

Pedro de Arana had meanwhile reached Santo 
Domingo and been active indeed near the audiencia 
there. He secured the appointment of a juez de comision 
to investigate certain specific charges against Luxan 
and to take a general accounting of financial af- 
fairs in Havana. This judge was Garci-Fernandez 



LUXAN AND QUINONES (1579-1586) 341 

de Torrequemada, a Dominican I think, — a fellow 
of fine phrases (the first example I have found of 
true tropical eloquence!) who was at the time royal 
factor in La Espanola. The audiencia restored Arana 
to his office of accountant and he and Torrequemada 
arrived in Havana on April 9, 1583. Manuel Diaz, 
acting accountant during Arana's absence, left Havana 
" between two days"; he had business on his plantation, 
but, added Rojas the treasurer in reporting this, "I will 
not leave though they cut my head off!" 

"I found," Torrequemada said, "the land aflame 
with factional passion; there were open breaches of the 
peace every once in a while." The governor provided 
him with one escort when he landed, and the alcaide 
with another; relying on loyalty in Havana to keep him 
safe, he dismissed both. Both governor and alcaide 
went about with armed men in attendance: "Even be- 
fore I arrived they had come to the point of sounding 
alarms against each other and of setting up cannon at 
street corners advantageous as points from which to 
attack." "Justice, administration and quietude are 
lacking." 

One of Torrequemada's first steps toward restoring 
tranquillity was to erect a gallows in the plaza, and there 
it remained while he was in town. He calmed the 
people, he said, by fair words as well as by threats, and 
a little later a communication was sent to court wherein 
citizens of Havana appear to say that in six days after 
his arrival quiet was so complete in Havana they 
thought his appointment must have been inspired by 
the Holy Ghost. 

The judge early arrived at the conclusion that it was 
necessary to remove Luxan from office with as great 



342 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

appearance of finality as he could compass; otherwise 
no witnesses would appear against him for fear of con- 
sequences should he return to power. He confined 
Luxan to his house, by an order issued on April 27 
(1583): Luxan complained that to this injury was 
added insult, for ribald jesters played guitars before 
his residence and sang him ditties, saying "God pardon 
thee, governor," while Torrequemada feted his enemies, 
and low persons who testified against him; among them 
was one so base as to have been once ordered to act as 
public executioner! Torrequemada also bade Quinones 
consider Fuerza his prison, and from them both the 
judge obtained a statement of their complaints against 
each other. 

It happened that two oidores (judges) of the au- 
diencia, — the Lie. de las Cabezas de Meneses and the 
Lie. Alonso de la Torre, — en route to Spain, and 
Captain-general Alvaro Flores of the Mexican fleet 
were in Havana at this time. With Torrequemada they 
constituted themselves an arbitration tribunal to which 
both the governor and the alcaide agreed to submit the 
grievances they had listed. Each in advance of the 
decision rendered placed his hands folded palms to- 
gether within the hands of Alvaro Flores and so took 
solemn oath to abide by this tribunal's opinion, what- 
ever it might be. Matters had, indeed, come to such a. 
pass that immediate adjustment was imperative. ' ' New 
friendship" was patched up between the two, and both 
were released from confinement. 

Torrequemada as ordered by his commission, con- 
tinued his investigation into Luxan's administration 
especially with respect to charges Arana had made 
against him that he interfered with communication be- 



LUXAN AND QUINONES (1579-1586) 343 

tween the people and the audiencia and the crown ; that 
he refused to recognize the authority of that court, and 
held it in contempt (saying that when it came time to 
pay fines for disobeying it, he would pass a cap about 
town to collect money to settle, and if the audiencia 
commissioned a judge against him he would tie his hands 
and ship him toward Spain in a leaking boat !) ; that he 
accepted bribes and, for considerations, countenanced 
and aided desertion from the garrison in time of danger; 
and that he interfered with the royal officials in the ex- 
ercise of their offices. In view of the evidence accumu- 
lated against him under these heads, Torrequemada de- 
termined to suspend the governor from the exercise of his 
office in Havana and vicinity until otherwise provided 
by competent authority. He did not despoil him, he 
said, of honors or emoluments, but simply forbade him 
to act as governor in the city or its district. When 
Luxan showed resistance and an inclination to appeal 
to the town council, Torrequemada confined him to his 
house under a guard of six men; Luxan complained 
that the six drew high wages. Then, as he was about 
to set out for Bayamo to continue his inquisition there, 
Torrequemada bade Luxan report to him in a month 
in that place; meanwhile, he carried Lie. Mina with 
him, presumably a prisoner en route to Santo Domingo 
to answer there to charges preferred against him. Tor- 
requemada confessed that his idea in taking Mina to 
Bayamo and in compelling Luxan to follow, was to 
place distance between them and Havana. Govern- 
ment there devolved upon the town council under 
Hernan Manrique de Rojas, — presumably the only 
even approximately impartial man in town. 

Luxan sent his brother-in-law, Ferrer de Vargas, to 



344 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

the audiencia to act as his advocate before that court. 
Meanwhile alleging that her health was poor in Cuba, 
his wife, Dona Isabel Ferrer de Vargas, went to Spain 
where she did excellent work on his behalf near king 
and council. 

On August 13, 1584, the audiencia reversed Torre- 
quemada's order that Luxan should not exercise his 
office in Havana or vicinity, and the governor returned 
to that city. His arrival fanned old dissensions into 
new flame. The agreement sworn to before Alvaro 
Flores de Valdes was cast to the winds and Hernan 
Manrique could effect no compromise nor any show of 
a desire for one between Luxan and Quinones. In 
December, 1584, the audiencia reversed its own decision, 
and upheld Torrequemada's order bidding Luxan 
refrain from exercising the governorship in Havana or 
vicinity. The moment this amazing order arrived 
Quinones served notice on Luxan to quit the city and its 
neighborhood, and to betake himself to Bayamo and 
Santiago, to protect, as he put it, that region against 
menacing corsairs. The governor was slow to move; 
Quinones threatened him with arrest, and he went, first 
only as far as Guanabacoa. By October, 1585, he had 
moved east, and he was in Bayamo by January, 1586. 

Government at Havana again devolved upon the 
town council and its alcaldes ordinarios, until on Decem- 
ber 20th, 1585, there arrived in Havana as justicia 
mayor to take charge of affairs there (but not outside 
that vicinity) one Pedro Guera de la Vega, whom 
Quinones described as a soldier from Florida. He had 
also served under Menendez in the armada and in the 
king's galleys. The town council was of a mind not to 
receive him, but did so after keeping him waiting a few 



LUXAN AND QUINONES (1579-1586) 345 

days. The audiencia of Santo Domingo had commis- 
sioned him on the strength of a royal cedula bidding 
that court to act as it might consider necessary in the 
quarrel between Luxan and Quinones. The alcaide re- 
ported that tranquillity prevailed both before and after 
Guera de la Vega's assumption of office, and that rela- 
tions were friendly between him and the new justicia. 
The treasurer Rojas said that the newcomer was not 
liked, and that he lacked all aptitude for the office he 
occupied. The audiencia had provided also a sheriff 
and he and Guera de la Vega had " arrived poor," Rojas 
explained, "but with inclination to become rich. This 
is precisely what this land did not need for its conserva- 
tion." It is hard to decide what Guera de la Vega's 
character and conduct may have been for in the excite- 
ment of events which occurred during his brief ad- 
ministration the documents I have seen make evident 
nothing concerning him excepting that he was present 
in Havana. 



CHAPTER XXI 

DRAKE (TO 1586) 

"... (England's) naval power stood revealed to the world." 
— Corbett, Drake and the Tudor Navy, II., p. 57. 

In 1580 and 1581 there was news in Cuba of corsairs 
off Florida and along the shores of Santo Domingo; 
waters about Porto Rico were said to be "as full of 
French as Rochelle." The Caribbean about Cuba was 
" caked with corsairs." They frequented the Isle of 
Pines, Cape Corrientes and Cape Cruz with impunity. 
Their shamelessness was such that they burned a ship 
in Trinidad harbor. " Not a vessel in the coasting trade 
escapes them." The crown was informed that the 
French had taken the island's entire output of hides 
and that legitimate coastwise business had ceased to 
exist. The seas were unsafe even for convoyed fleets. 
On one occasion an enemy ship sailed boldly into the 
midst of a fleet as it was passing Cape San Antonio and 
made an almost successful attack on the admiral him- 
self. On September 22, 1581, Menendez Marquez came 
into Havana with fifteen sail, — all that remained of the 
Santo Domingo fleet. He had been thoroughly bested 
by corsairs. He confessed himself to be sick and 
scared, — he had expected to find Havana in the hands 
of "the enemy." These facts and warnings of English 
to be expected under "Vingam, Forbuxer" and "Fran- 
cisco Draques" occasioned renewed appeals to the 

346 



DRAKE (TO 1586) 347 

crown for galleys to patrol the coasts, and for artillery 
and munitions for Fuerza. "At present it makes war 
with its reputation only," said Captain Sardo de Arana 
in demanding guns for the fort. 

When on February 3, 1582, a warning was received 
from Spain that corsairs had actually set out for Indies 
from England and from France, Luxan threw Havana 
into a fever of excitement by burning, " within an 
hour," those bohios standing close to Fuerza of which 
unquestionably he was glad of an excuse to be rid, and 
by barricading the streets, — a precaution his critics con- 
sidered especially ridiculous in view of the fragile in- 
flammable character of the structures scattered along 
them. He sent in haste to Mexico for powder and for 
reinforcements. 

The king's warning had ordered Luxan to put all 
Cuba on guard. He was to review men available for 
defence and to report on their number in each village, — 
Spaniards, mestizos, mulattoes and Indians. In Havana 
Luxan said the call to arms brought out 206 good 
arquebusiers and twenty lancers. Guanabacoa fur- 
nished fifty men of very mixed blood who assembled 
under a captain of their own. These the accountant 
Arana considered " miserable and useless people, un- 
accustomed to arms." As for Fuerza's garrison, 
according to his point of view the men were of low 
character, and so sick because of the dampness of 
the fort that not twelve in all were in fit condition to 
fight. 

The alcaide Quinones had expected to take 150 
soldiers to Havana with him. Instead, he brought 
about 70 (young and inexperienced, Luxan said) so 
raising the total strength of the garrison there to 120 



348 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

only. Two cannon and certain munitions and arms 
were received from Spain in June, 1582; and the gov- 
ernor and royal officials purchased meantime four 
pieces of artillery and some powder from a ship. 

Quinones, assuming office in August, took military 
affairs in hand vigorously. He sought to remedy what 
defects in Fuerza were remediable; he built a stairway 
within the fort and protected it from the sea by a break- 
water. He set out sentinels, looked well to patrols, and 
built a platform and dug trenches at Punta. When a 
storm and heavy seas charging across that promontory 
disarranged his platform and flooded his trenches, his 
enemies rejoiced that part at least of the alcaide's " im- 
pertinent works" had fallen in. By January, 1584, he 
had a somewhat substantial fort built there and eight 
guns in place. As for disciplining the garrison, accord- 
ing to the Franciscans, out of his own "abundant 
Christianity" he made his men almost priestly in their 
piety! The town council, on the other hand, declared 
that entirely without respect for the municipal author- 
ities they " lived in the liberty they thought conven- 
ient" (even to breaking in the meat market doors, — 
presumably when meat on credit was denied them) . 

Quinones insisted that the reinforcements Luxan had 
asked of Mexico were not needed, — all that was re- 
quired to assure Havana's safety was to provide him 
with the munitions he requested. These were sent, but 
also on February 6, 1583, there arrived forty men, 
criollos from Mexico, and more came within a few days 
to a total of one hundred in command of Captain Pedro 
de Guevara. Captain Guevara had instructions to 
recognize Luxan (not Quinones) as his chief. The 
governor described these men as experienced soldiers, 



DRAKE (TO 1586) 349 

presenting a fine appearance. They came paid for 
seven months and with provisions for that length of 
time. At the end of the seven months, their number 
shrunk to sixty, — and " undesirables," at that, accord- 
ing to Torrequemada, — they were dismissed, even 
Luxan concurring, and permitted to return to Mexico. 

Again in June of 1585 a despatch boat out of Seville 
warned Cuba that enemy vessels had left England for 
an unknown destination. The Spanish were convinced 
that the English planned to make a settlement in the 
new world. English traders had come ashore on Porto 
Rico and actually built a rough fort there to protect 
themselves while they cut timber and acquired by 
barter provisions of all sorts, horses, cattle, dogs, birds 
and negroes; when they departed they left "a writing" 
in their abandoned fort which was presumed to be a 
communication to those who should come after them. 
In September after this episode Menendez Marquez 
reported ten English sail seen off Florida going north. 
The conviction grew that the intention was to establish 
a base there. In July, 1585, stirred by Seville's warning, 
a caravel was despatched from Havana to Spain con- 
veying " what certain news" was known in Cuba "as to 
the English who have come to these parts." They had 
indeed ma.de a settlement, — under Sir Richard Grenville 
and Ralph Lane, — in a land they named Virginia after 
their queen but which to the Spaniards was still Florida. 
Their Roanoke was Santa Maria bay, which Alonso 
Suarez de Toledo described from personal knowledge 
to be an excellent locality. 

Nevertheless, although these facts were known and 
attacks anticipated, the news was none the less paralyz- 
ing in its import which Governor Luxan at Bayamo re- 



350 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA . 

ceived on January 28, 1586: Sir Francis Drake with a 
formidable armada had taken the city of Santo Do- 
mingo on the 10th preceding, and held it yet! 

"The corsair's" capture of the capital of Philip's 
Caribbean possessions was Elizabeth's announcement 
that a state of war existed between herself and the 
Catholic King. The traditional amity which for cen- 
turies had prevailed between England and the house of 
Burgundy was broken at last by the rising might of the 
new Mistress of the Seas. Drake now was no mere 
pirate as he had been at Nombre de Dios years before. 
He was the militant politics, the militant religion and 
the militant commerce of England, and loot was less 
his object than was the demoralization of the Catholic 
King's Indian trade since on it Philip had come to de- 
pend for means not only to act against England but to 
uphold the very foundations of his own prestige. 

Two judges of the audiencia who had escaped from 
Santo Domingo sent the news to Cuba via Santiago 
advising this island to expect a similar visitation. 

Within two hours after receipt of this intelligence, 
Luxan had despatched messengers to warn Havana and 
to bid all the intervening settlements muster men to 
reinforce that place. By sea immediately Hernan 
Manrique set out for Havana with Bayamo's first con- 
tribution of reinforcements. Luxan forwarded a boat- 
load of supplies within a few days. Hernan Manrique 
carried a letter from Luxan to Quinones expressing the 
governor's views as to what should be done in this 
emergency. Luxan bade the royal officials appeal to 
Mexico for help and to send tidings to the king in Spain. 
This was done. From Santiago he also sent two ships 
to Seville with the news, and he sought to warn Car- 



DRAKE (TO 1586) 351 

tagena. French corsairs captured some of his de- 
spatches. 

The island settlements responded to the governor's 
appeal for men. Under Captain Juan Ferrer de Vargas, 
his brother-in-law, Bayamo sent 88; under Captain 
Diego Lopez Quiros, Puerto Principe sent 49; under 
Captain Hernando Pelaez, Sancti Spiritus sent 51; 
under Captain Vicente Gomez, Trinidad, "most needy 
and least populous of all," furnished 21. When (on 
May 5) the roll of these volunteers was called in Havana, 
their number was even a little larger, for it is recorded 
at 211, and Luxan estimated it larger yet, at approx- 
imately 230. 

Four days before Luxan's news of Drake in Santo 
Domingo reached Havana, word to the same effect was 
brought by a vessel out of Bayasa in La Espanola and 
the night before it entered a despatch boat arrived from 
Seville with warning that the corsair had been sighted 
off Bayona in Galicia with twenty-nine sail moving 
west. This despatch boat had left Spain with certain 
munitions consigned to Havana but as it passed Car- 
tagena Don Pedro Rique helped himself to them all. 
Havana's indignation at his conduct augmented when 
presently it became known how poorly Cartegena de- 
fended herself against the enemy. In recompense, 
Havana seized half of a lot of munitions and all the fuse 
of a shipment en route to Mexico. 

Days of feverish activity followed. In the face of real 
danger jealousies and disagreements seemed for the 
moment forgotten. From Bayamo, regretting that the 
emergency found him outside Havana, but resolved to 
serve the king nevertheless where he was, Luxan re- 
ported everybody to be "in a becoming humor" and 



352 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

with expectation to see the audacious enemy punished 
as became so powerful and Christian a king as Spain's. 
In Havana QuifLones declared that all were a unit in the 
peace and friendship " suitable" to the occasion. The 
treasurer Rojas was, so he himself said, the first to 
shoulder his shovel and lay-to on manual labor to en- 
trench the town, thanks to which good example, "none 
desired to be excused." The Dominican monks an- 
imated the people by displaying the sacred banner of 
Our Lady of the Rosary. Pedro Guera de la Vega, 
saying that now that he had a chance he would demon- 
strate that the crown had not fed him sixteen years for 
nothing, described to the king the measures being taken 
to place Havana in defence. He had, he said, called in 
"out of the woods" many persons who had been hiding 
from justice because of quarrels, debts, etc.; he assured 
them against arrest and also against pursuit (once the 
danger was over) for fifteen days after they should have 
again left Havana for their asylums in the wilderness or 
in the churches. He believed Havana would cause the 
English corsairs "to repent." Nevertheless, he asked 
the king to send assistance quickly. 

A vessel was stationed off Ycacos Point with instruc- 
tions if Havana were taken, to speed with that news to 
Spain. To the west another vessel waited in Puercos 
River to advise Mexico, if the disaster occurred. Since 
the enemy might land at Chorrera, a house had been 
built there to shelter six men nightly with horses near to 
enable them to ride to warn the town. Between 
Chorrera and the city there were three or four inlets 
considered dangerous: one of these was Guillen's (San 
Lazaro) and the others were between it and Punta. 
To protect each of these, trenches and terraplens were 



DRAKE (TO 1586) 353 

prepared and artillery placed. All roads except the 
shore road into town were closed and along false roads 
which were opened, pitfalls were dug. Where to-day 
a macadamized boulevard and electric car tracks pass 
close under the battery at the townward edge of Vedado, 
the citizens of Havana in the spring of 1586 prepared to 
make a stiff stand against any invasion from the west. 
They carried earth to the top of that hill and built 
works to shelter themselves on its summit, — an advan- 
tageous position from which they could repulse an ad- 
vancing enemy while enjoying immunity from attack, — 
and below the hill, through the coral formation of the 
coast there, they dug trenches to embarrass any force 
seeking to cross. Guillen's (San Lazaro) inlet was pro- 
tected by earthworks; on the higher ground on the 
townward side of it a rough fort was built with two guns 
on a platform. All available cannon were forced into 
service, — thirty pieces in all, with Melchor Sardo de 
Arana in charge of them as to condition, ammunition, 
etc. Between Guillen's inlet and Punta the bush was 
cleared away and long trenches dug. Communication 
over all this distance was facilitated by connecting 
trenches and a road protected by a screen of " brush- 
wood" thrown up, sufficient to hide a man passing on 
horseback. Punta with ten or twelve guns was in 
readiness to offend as well as defend, and for once the 
treasurer Rojas spoke no ill of Quinones' handiwork 
there. A chain of wooden blocks was hung across the 
harbor mouth, held by a lock on the Morro side. Along 
the harbor shore between Punta and Fuerza a trench 
was dug and three guns were placed outside Fuerza in a 
position to cover the entrance to the bay. Fuerza was 
hastily victualled now as for a siege. That fort's low 



354 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

parapets were built up with timbers and earth to pro- 
tect the men manning its guns. Barricades were 
thrown up in the plaza about it and all buildings (except 
the hospital, church and custom house) considered to 
threaten it were removed from its vicinity, — including 
residences of such principal citizens as Juan Recio and 
Diego de Soto which now no favoritism could spare. On 
Morro three guns were planted and look-outs main- 
tained there and beyond as far as Matanzas, to scan 
the sea for approaching sails. Westward, Indian 
sentinels watched from vantage points on the Organo 
Mountains and from the south coast, — at Cabanas, 
Marien, Rio de Puercos, Capes San Antonio and 
Corrientes, — and Spaniards waited with them with 
horses ready to hurry any tidings to the town. Fire 
and smoke signals were all arranged. Havana did not 
know whether Drake had left Santo Domingo, or 
whether, as was greatly feared, he was making him- 
self permanent master of that place. 

Meanwhile, the volunteers sent forward by the other 
settlements were assembling in Havana. Some served 
without rations, — none, it seems, expected pay, — but 
for others food had to be provided and no other funds 
being available Rojas took it upon himself to spend of 
the money accumulated from the Chorrera ditch tax 
and, also without authority, he determined to continue 
that tax although the time for which it was authorized 
had expired and collections had been discontinued. 
His actions were eventually approved by the crown. 

Early in April reinforcements, provisions and muni- 
tions, sent by the viceroy of Mexico reached Havana,— 
300 men in four ships, paid for eight months and accom- 
panied by supplies for six. They came in command of 



DRAKE (TO 1586) 355 

Martin Perez de Olacabal who delivered them to Quin- 
ones (Luxan being absent in Bayamo) and returned at 
once to Mexico. There were now about 900 well-trained 
arquebusiers in Havana. 

On February 20th a despatch boat out of Seville 
carrying duplicate warnings as to Drake brought to 
Cuba an order to Luxan to resume the governorship 
in Havana, and extended his term. Juan Bautista de 
Rojas who had the governor's power of attorney imme- 
diately took possession of the office as his representa- 
tive, as had been arranged at the time of the governor's 
unwilling departure in October, 1585. Luxan, coming 
up from Bayamo by forced marches, arrived in Havana 
about April 20th, accompanied by some ninety good 
arquebusiers. This raised the fighting force of the town 
to perhaps a thousand men. Luxan continued Rojas 
in authority as his lieutenant, a detail of which Quinones 
disapproved. Nevertheless, appearance of harmony 
between the governor and the alcaide was maintained; 
even Quinones affected to be glad of the governor's 
opportune return (although he said that by the time 
he got there all steps necessary to Havana's defence 
had been taken), and Luxan, informing the crown that 
concord prevailed, said he trusted in God that "the 
corsair" would gain nothing by visiting Havana. They 
hoped to give him a different reception from that he had 
enjoyed at Santo Domingo, — they expected "to take 
the covetousness out of him." 

Havana had now heard nothing of Drake for eighty 
days. Inquiries were sent forth to neighboring settle- 
ments to learn his whereabouts, but a day or so later 
(on May 2) a frigate originally cleared from Seville 
came into port: it had approached near enough to 



356 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Cartagena to learn that having despoiled St. Domingo 
"the corsair" had moved on and taken that other colony 
in its turn. He held the place two months. It was 
rumored that he had sacked Puerto Caballo. Havana 
now waited, arms in hand, night and day expecting 
Drake every hour. 

On May 27th a messenger arrived from Cape San 
Antonio saying that on the 22nd Drake's fleet had 
appeared off that west end of Cuba, — thirty sail in all 
(sixteen large ships, 400 to 600 tons burden, and four- 
teen small ones). They had taken on wood and water 
and seemed, at first, to be waiting there to attack the 
treasure fleet. On the 29th another messenger came 
in from San Anton with news that on the 25th his fleet 
had passed on, certainly, it was thought, for Havana. 

On the 29th the first of the English vessels ap- 
peared, — six fast launches chasing a vessel from Cam- 
peche which carried a cargo of dyewood. She made port 
and a shot from Punta and another from Morro drove 
her pursuers back. At three o'clock in the afternoon 
Morro signalled fourteen sail in sight. The alarm had 
been sounded and now indeed all was activity in the 
trenches, and behind every one of the thirty guns, 
pointed muzzles toward the sea. Seven hundred men, 
Alonso Suarez de Toledo wrote, took their places along 
the coast; one hundred were in the plaza, and fifty in 
the fort. "It was a pleasure," he said, "to see these 
people in such good shape and in such high spirits." 
"Even the sick and useless," said Luxan, "kept their 
places in the trenches day and night." The weather 
was most propitious for a landing. The dawn of the 
30th disclosed the full thirty of the enemy's ships, all 
making their most formidable appearance as having 



DRAKE (TO 1586) 357 

passed Havana they lay at anchor off the Guacuranao 
River. Coasting craft, approaching without knowledge 
of the danger, were chased, and one, carrying nothing 
more valuable than a cargo of salt, was overhauled, 
though its crew escaped. 

Havana's defenders lay in their trenches. Once 
Morro signalled that a landing was being made at 
Chorrera and all were of the unanimous opinion that 
once, at night, they saw Drake's landing party ap- 
proach, — they even counted the barges and disputed 
the number of them. Meanwhile, the attacks of rain 
and mosquitoes which they endured were less of an 
illusion. Drake made no attempt to land at all. 

On June 4 the English seemed to disappear. Great 
was the disappointment the Spaniards affected : had the 
enemy but landed they would have collected pay for all 
unsettled scores, — for "all," Alonso Suarez wrote, 
"that they have done and their evil heretical lives." 
Instead, Drake sailed away, "rich, and therefore he 
will come again. May God," continued Alonso Suarez, 
"indicate the remedy and your majesty move the 
execution of it less slowly and tardily than the despatch 
of the armada of galleons now expected." The armada 
had indeed left Spain and was "expected now that the 
enemy has gone. Would to God," Alonso Suarez ex- 
claimed, that Drake might meet the Catholic King's 
good battleships in formidable line. Quinones re- 
gretted that the royal armada should miss so fine a 
chance at an enemy short-handed as Drake was through 
sickness. Havana understood correctly that the Eng- 
lishman was in no condition for any such encounter. 
Ten galleons, Alonso Suarez said, could have taken him. 
He kept his people's spirits up with fine words, for they 



358 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

were in terror of meeting Spanish armed ships. It is 
difficult to imagine what would have been Havana's 
frame of mind had her people known that the armada 
they longed to see best the enemy had its orders to 
avoid him if possible, and to confine its endeavors to 
bringing the plate fleets safely home. Philip fully 
appreciated that Drake's great raid was a blow at his 
finances. 

Eight Spaniards whom Drake had taken at Cartagena 
and sent ashore to get wood and water when he halted 
off the west end of Cuba, had escaped then and travel- 
ling to Havana with messengers who announced the 
enemy's fleet they had brought news of conditions 
aboard the English ships. There was plague; many per- 
sons died and were thrown overboard daily. Drake 
was, moreover, weighted down with captives, — Indians 
taken at Cartagena (mostly women who did menial 
service aboard his vessels), negroes, Turks and Moors. 
After a meeting with his captains as the fleet lay off 
San Anton, Drake had assured these "on his head," 
that they might feel safe as to their lives. It is possible 
that at this conference the Englishman decided not to 
attack Havana, for the season was far advanced, doubt- 
less Havana had been warned and was therefore pre- 
pared to resist : at all events, the escaped Spaniards said 
that after this council Drake immediately stored away 
some of his plentiful artillery, and it seems certain that 
as he lay to off Bucuranao his chief interest was to get 
fresh water. 

As soon as it seemed that Drake had indeed gone, 
messengers were sent out from Havana to make sure. 
Riders along the coast as far as Matanzas brought back 
word that no sails had been seen there. A frigate 



DRAKE (TO 1586) 359 

coasting that far east saw no signs of the enemy. On 
its return Captain Vicente Gonzalez and Captain Pedro 
Bernal (who had helped bring the reinforcements from 
Mexico) were sent out, Bernal towards Tortugas and 
Gonzalez toward Cabezas de Martires, to look fur- 
ther. In time both returned, having discovered nothing 
of Drake. It was thus made clear that he had indeed de- 
parted. Then, as Luxan put it, these coasts rested from 
their unpleasant expectancy, yet there lingered a doubt 
as to whether or not the enemy might not have re- 
mained in Florida, — at any point, that is, along the 
Atlantic seaboard. Because he carried off negroes and 
implements of all sorts the Spaniards were entirely 
convinced that Drake planned to make a permanent 
settlement in the Indies: why else should he take away 
human chattels which he could not hold as such "in his 
own country"? By June 30th Havana knew that he 
had desolated St. Augustine. It was considered that 
Pedro Menendez had done well to save his people's 
lives. Within four hours after receipt of this news 
Havana had sent a vessel to their relief with food and 
munitions. It was supposed that Santa Elena had 
shared St. Augustine's fate; not until later did Havana 
learn that the place had escaped ruin at his hands be- 
cause its settlers were too wise to fire cannon in answer 
to Drake's, booming along the coast as he tried in vain 
to locate it. 

I have seen no mention that Cuba was informed how, 
continuing northward, Drake found Raleigh's colony 
in Virginia and conveyed its disheartened survivors 
home, whereas, I am led to believe, it had indeed been 
his hope to reinforce that settlement with the slaves 
and implements which were among spoils of his raid, 



360 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

and so firmly establish an English base at Roanoke. 
"And thus it was," as Corbett concludes (Drake and 
the Tudor Navy), "that as England's first conquests 
in America were abandoned, her first colony was aban- 
doned too; .... in the very hour in which at last 
her naval power stood revealed to the world." 



CHAPTER XXII 

THE ANNOYANCE OF THE FRENCH (1586) 

Meanwhile, French corsairs were informed by Luxan's 
despatches which they had captured that Santiago was 
without adequate protection, both men and munitions 
being very scarce; and judging the rest of the island to 
be too much concerned with Drake to succor the eastern 
port, they almost obliterated from the map that " first 
city of the island, . . . foundation of all discoveries 
made in these Indies." Only the " incorrigible " Gomez 
de Rojas's resilient courage prevented abandonment 
of its site. 

In the summer of 1578 Santiago had sent Luis de 
Castro Bazan, Cuban-born son of Hernando de Castro, 
former factor, to court as its representative to ask favors 
of the crown. Santiago wanted a fort. The governor 
recommended it. He had sent arms to the thirty 
vecinos resident there; the full fighting force of the town 
was about 120 men. No fort materialized, however, 
beyond earthworks to protect the landing. Seville was 
ordered to send certain munitions and may have done 
so. A lookout seems to have been maintained on 
Morro headland, out of funds raised by a tax on the 
citizens. 

And the French continued to do business on land, 
while energetically discouraging competition by sea. 
In the east, as governor's lieutenant in Luxan's absence 
Gomez de Rojas was doing his best to enforce the law. 

361 



362 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

By a ruse and in a picturesque encounter he ambushed 
and killed another seven Frenchmen (presumably at 
Manzanilla) at the same time capturing ten more, 
among them their leader Ricarte alias "Capitan Mota." 
He bore the heads of the seven into Bayamo on pikes 
and confined his prisoners there. Their trial before 
civil authorities was progressing, despite ecclesiastical 
demands that they be delivered over to the church as a 
case for the inquisition, when, on the afternoon of 
May 1, 1586, Gomez de Rojas received word that a 
French ship had appeared off Santiago. At ten that 
night he issued an order urging that justice be done 
quickly because he was compelled to return to Santiago 
for its defence and because the prisoners were pirates 
who knew the Cuban coast thoroughly. As a measure 
of public safety he advised the alcaldes to see to the 
case promptly: "and justice was done so that (the 
French) died." At midnight they were summoned from 
their jail one by one, on excuse that testimony was to 
be taken, but " daybreak found eight swinging on the 
gallows." The other two (one wounded) were to be 
similarly dealt with subsequently. The trial, it is 
interesting to notice, was properly continued later on. 
Having, however, so anticipated its satisfactory con- 
clusion, Gomez de Rojas returned post haste to San- 
tiago. He arrived late. 

That very day two French ships, — one large and one 
small, — had attacked Santiago; the town procurador 
later informed the king that it was because food sup- 
plies had been refused to them. Santiago had defended 
itself; the fighting lasted from noon to night. One 
enemy ship grounded and was riddled with shot from 
the Spanish trenches, but the other pulled her off and 



THE ANNOYANCE OF THE FRENCH (1586) 363 

both retreated, the smaller towing the larger. They 
left an anchor behind, however, which was a well- 
understood threat that they would return. The Span- 
iards lost one man, who was blown to pieces by the 
explosion of one of their own guns, and some one of his 
flock shot Francisco Guerrero, clerigo, in the back as he 
stood animating the defence. All in all, this day of 
Saints Philip and James was a glorious day for the 
Spanish and one of ill-omen for the French, — what 
with eight of their nationality floating in the wind 
from Bayamo's gallows, and two of their ships limping 
off to La Yaguana (the corsair rendezvous of La Es- 
panola), dropping overboard dead men killed by the 
effective fire of Santiago's scant defenders. 

The bishop now was Salcedo who had with difficulty 
been persuaded to come in person to his diocese where 
in his absence his pro visor Ribero armed "with a cross 
draped in black" was interfering with the administra- 
tion of civil justice in Bayamo, and stoning the gov- 
ernor's lieutenant's house. He excommunicated Gomez 
de Rojas for dealing too rapidly with the eight French- 
men whom he had hung before the church had her way 
with their goods. Rojas, believing the danger passed 
at Santiago, returned to Bayamo to set himself right 
with the bishop, but he kept his horse saddled lest he 
receive word to hurry back. 

The very day Gomez reached Bayamo the French 
returned to Santiago, six or seven ships in all, and men 
to the number of eight hundred, the Spaniards said. 
On receipt of this news Gomez set out for the port at 
full speed, waiting for nobody to accompany him. The 
next day fourteen arquebusiers furnished by Bayamo 
came after. Bayamo too had given Santiago eighteen 



364 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

pounds of powder. Lie. Minas followed with twenty- 
six more, — forty men in all, to reinforce the threatened 
settlement. 

Meanwhile, five of the enemy ships came in close to 
Santiago town; one stood off at a distance. They fired 
many shots to which the Spaniards replied as best they 
could. They thought it curious that the French made 
no attempt to land. The reason was presently ex- 
plained: news arrived that 150 men who had come 
ashore at Xuragua were approaching the town over- 
land, guided by a man they had captured there where 
he was helping to build a ship. Another who had been 
working with him escaped and brought the warning 
but by the time he arrived in Santiago the French also 
were very near. Gomez Patino went out to meet them 
with thirty men or so (Indians and Spaniards); they 
had a little powder. He mistook the route by which 
the enemy were coming but remedied his error in time 
to encounter them. His men, however, were scattered: 
he had but nineteen with him. They fought at long 
range until their powder was gone and then closed in 
hand to hand, retreating as they fought. The French 
lost their leader among a score or more killed. Patino 
lost five men. The Spaniards made a last stand in the 
church, but finally surrendered "because they were 
worn out and some had gone to look after their women." 
Captain Lisano Luyando in command of some thirty 
men who had remained in the earthworks by the land- 
ing, kept up his end of the fight until powder gave out 
and the French had the town. His party retired only 
when it was made very evident to them that it was use- 
less to resist further. The French had continued to 
fire from their ships in the bay. Some fifty houses in 



^ THE ANNOYANCE OF THE FRENCH (1586) 365 

the settlement were destroyed. Presently they landed 
men and began to demolish the more durable build- 
ings which up to that time had escaped serious 
damage. They profaned the church, insulting altars 
and images, and wrecked the monastery and masonry 
residences. It seems the French did not loot the place 
systematically. It was said they did not get ten ducats' 
worth of booty, but they did carry off guns which be- 
longed to Gomez de Rojas and spiked one which was 
the town's. Some shipping escaped them and they left 
hastily, evidently fearing the arrival of reinforcements. 

Though doubtless he rode like the wind, rather than 
miss an occasion so much to his liking, Gomez de Rojas 
arrived in Santiago too late again. The French had 
gone. He ordered Bayamo's contingents home and 
faced the situation in Santiago as the visitors had left 
it in their wake. 

It was serious. The people were entirely discouraged 
and some of the best of them desired to abandon the 
city forever; others suggested moving inland two 
leagues. On May 25th, on the estate of Juan Lopez, a 
league from Santiago, the town council and leading 
citizens met in session, Gomez de Rojas presiding, to 
determine what course of action should be pursued. 
Captain Luis Camacho, of the artillery, recited briefly 
the events which had just transpired of which all were 
only too well informed. He said that what artillery 
the enemy had left them had been withdrawn to a place 
of safety. There was no powder and there was no 
shot. Though palm board houses of the town had been 
destroyed, and the cathedral and monastery and church 
of San Francisco burned, there remained standing thir- 
teen masonry houses and some few others, and the 



366 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

church and hospital of Ntra. Sra. de la Conception, and 
the hermitage of Stas. Clara and Catalina. This was 
enough shelter, he said; he believed that the people 
should reassemble in the town, the churches should 
resume their services, the clergy should accommodate 
themselves in the hospital and hermitages, sentinels 
should again be set on Morro headland and elsewhere 
and along the road from Juragua; and aid should be 
asked of the crown for the repair of the cathedral. His 
remarks opened discussion. Opinion was divided. 
The alcaldes in very perfunctory terms stated that they 
were opposed to abandoning the city; certain regidores 
placed themselves on record as opposed to abandoning 
it until the king could be advised of their dire need. 
Another however declared that if they crowded back 
into such quarters as were available, it might be the 
death of them all, — it was the hottest season and 
Santiago was notoriously unhealthy. Captain Patino 
said that since Santiago was in no shape to defend itself 
he advised the married men to betake themselves and 
their families to Havana, the bachelors to go where they 
saw fit. Alonso de Miranda then arose and declared 
with vehemence that he had been a resident of Santiago 
since the island was conquered and there he would re- 
main until the king ordered otherwise, no matter what 
damage corsairs might do. Thirteen houses to say noth- 
ing of the hospital and church buildings remained. He 
demanded that the council close the road whereby the 
French had entered, set out sentinels as before, and 
otherwise resume life on the usual basis. Captain Luis 
Camacho agreed with Captain Patino: two frigates 
were leaving with the transient population, — Santiago 
was without defence, and should be abandoned by its 



THE ANNOYANCE OF THE FRENCH (1586) 367 

vecinos as well. Captain Luyando said that it was a 
pity that so old a town, one that had served the king 
well as a base in the conquests of Mexico and Peru, and 
enjoyed the title of city, should be deserted now. He 
opposed the idea. Decision was at this time reserved 
until the opinion of one Juan Zapata could be had, but 
it was known that he favored withdrawing to Havana 
pending the king's action. 

Gomez de Rojas had listened and he was of a valiant 
temper. He ordered mass sung next day. He bade the 
mayordomo sweep and clean the hospital, since the 
service was to be celebrated there, the cathedral being 
unworthy because it had been desecrated. He ordered 
the hermitages cleaned "and made decent" to receive 
the clergy and the Franciscan monks and he commanded 
them to return on penalty of forfeiture of any pay due 
them. He bade every man in town, resident and tran- 
sient, to appear before the church door with his arms, 
that it might be learned how many of them there were. 
He ordered the alcaldes and regidores to hold a meeting 
of the town council on May 27th. Word was sent out, 
to many by name, that on penalty of fine and banish- 
ment all must present themselves in the devastated 
town. Gomez also ordered the meat market to open 
and artisans to return to work. He ordered the owners 
of the thirteen masonry houses to put them into shape 
to shelter neighbors who had resided in the more perish- 
able structures, and he billeted the people as comfort- 
ably as he could. He ordered the Indians to burn the 
score of dead Frenchmen whom Patino's party had laid 
out along the Juragua road, lest the bad smell which 
arose from the neglected corpses breed a sickness. His 
energetic measures saved Santiago. It was rebuilt. 



368 THE EARLY HISTORY OF CUBA 

Women and children remained for some time, however, 
at El Caney. The church there had not been damaged. 

Being petitioned for a thousand ducats each for the 
cathedral and the monastery's church, and for slaves, 
and for leave to clear a ship from Seville to Santiago 
direct each year regardless of fleets, the king granted 
money for the restoration of the sacred edifices. 

On July 5th Pedro Bernal left Havana with news of 
what had occurred in Cuba, — in east and west. He 
had an exciting crossing but arrived in Spain. 



THE END OF AN ERA 

Drake's passage along her coast in 1586 ended the 
first large era of Cuba's history. Theretofore Philip's 
reliance had been upon his naval strength; but the 
Englishman demonstrated that it was insufficient to 
protect the Spanish Indies: therefore their colonies 
must be fortified to protect themselves. The council 
for the Indies had achieved this conception of the situa- 
tion and of the necessity for a change in policy which it 
constituted, even before news reached the court in 
September, 1586, of "the corsair's" appearance off 
Havana and of the havoc wrought at Santiago by the 
French. When letters bearing these tidings were re- 
ceived from Cuba they were immediately laid before 
the king. "Your majesty's great prudence," the coun- 
cil for the Indies added, "best understands how im- 
portant it is to provide in good season especially in view 
of the possibility that the enemy may return with a 
purpose, as he has said that he will." 

The king had already acted. Confessing his weakness 
even before he knew how thoroughly Drake was dem- 
onstrating it to all the world, he ordered Joan de Texeda 
to go to the Indies in Alvaro Flores' armada which was 
despatched in Drake's wake to bring the plate fleets 
home. Texeda had instructions not to return from the 
Indies until he had seen "all the forts and observed 
what needs to be done in each one, according to the 
intention with which he was sent." That intention was 

369 



370 THE END OF AN ERA 

a comprehensive and intelligent fortification of all the 
Spanish possessions in and about the Caribbean Sea. 
Texeda was accompanied by the engineer Bautista de 
Antoneli. Great forts standing yet at San Juan in 
Porto Rico, at Cartagena, and at Havana, are the ex- 
pression of their opinion as to what needed to be done. 

Morro and Punta which Antoneli planned and 
Texeda largely built, cast a long shadow of safety 
over Cuba and in that grateful shade agricultural in- 
dustry first struck deep root, copper mining revived 
and manufactures and ship-building began. Antoneli 
readily brought water into the city via the Chorrera 
ditch from the Almendares River; along its course the 
first sugar factories in Cuba made their prompt appear- 
ance. Texeda sampled the island's copper and on the 
site of the present Maestranza building it was success- 
fully cast into cannon, and kettles. Timbers were 
fetched and from them famous frigates were built in 
Havana harbor: admirably fashioned under Texeda's 
keen eye as he sat on the ways and watched officials 
and workmen to keep them from stealing time and nails. 

In brief, Spain took a firm hold at last upon her price- 
less possession of Cuba: " bulwark of the Indies, key 
to the new world." The island ceased to be a wayport 
of empire, — a mere base of operations for exploitation of 
Mexico, the southern continents and Florida. It came 
to be prized not alone for its strategical importance but 
also somewhat for its own inherent value in sugar, in 
copper and in woods. 

Its great enemy was therefore the island's great 
benefactor: for no friend the colony had succeeded be- 
fore him in accomplishing on its behalf as much as did 
Sir Francis Drake. Forts, artillery, garrisons, galleys 



THE END OF AN ERA 371 

to patrol the coast, — everything that his loyal subjects 
had in vain petitioned the Catholic King to provide, all 
were forthcoming when instead of humble entreaties, 
Philip heard among his islands, along his own coasts, 
the beat of Drake's drum and the roll of the guns of the 
Tudor navy. They ushered in other times. 



GLOSSARY 

(An attempt is here made to translate, in the sense in which they 
are used in this book, certain words for which no satisfactory 
brief equivalent occurred to the author while writing. — W.) 



A 

Acana, a hard wood of Cuba. 

Adelantado, a title which may be roughly described as that of 
civil and military governor of a province. 

Alcaide, a military title: approximately, warden. 

Alcalde, usually translated mayor. The word means judge, and 
designates the chief municipal authority whose principal 
duties were those of a judge of first instance. 

Alcalde ordinario, i. e., ordinary alcalde: the official above- 
described as distinguished from other judges with lesser, 
prescribed jurisdictions, such, for instance, as alcaldes de 
minas (at mines). 

Alferez, a military title: standard-bearer. 

Alguacil, sheriff. 

Audiencia, a higher court (at Santo Domingo). I 

B 

Bachiller, bachelor: a minor title in scholarship. 

Blanca, a white maravedi, i. e., a coin of lowest value. 

Bohio, or buhio; the aboriginal word for the hut in which the 

aboriginal Cuban lived; still used in the island to designate 

a palm-thatched shack. 
Boniato, a yam. 
Cabildo, council: i. e., the regimiento (which see) and the justicia 

(which see) assembled in meeting. 
373 



374 GLOSSARY 



Caballeria, a measure of land: nowadays in Cuba approximately 

33|- acres. 
Cacique, an aboriginal chieftain. 
Cacona, articles, or money, with which natives and slaves were 

rewarded for services. 
Caney, a circular bohio (which see). 
Capitan, captain. 
Capitan a guerra, a representative of the governor to whom his 

military powers were delegated. 
Casa, de la contratacion. Literally, house of trade: those 

offices in Seville through which especially the commerce of 

Indies was administered. 
Casa de f undicion, smelter building; see fundicion. 
Castellano, a coin. 
Cayo, key; islet. 
Cazabe or cazabi, a sort of bread still made in Cuba from roots 

of yuca. It is baked in the shape of a big rough wafer of 

rather pebbly appearance. 
Cedula, a written communication; a letter. 
Cedula real, an official communication from the crown. 
Cedulario, books of records of cedulas. 
Ceiba, a tree which bears a sort of cotton in pods which is still 

an article of commerce in Spain and Spanish-America known 

as miraguano or miraguano de indias. 
Cimarron, wild; i. e., a native or slave in revolt. 
Clerigo, a priest. " The good clerigo" was Fray Bartolome de 

las Casas. 
Componer, to fix. Componer extrangeros was to naturalize 

them. 
Conquistador, conqueror. 
Cosario, corsair, i. e., one who cruises. Not an uncomplimentary 

designation; Pedro Menendez, for instance, refers to himself 

as a corsair and therefore acquainted with Indian sea 

routes. 
Criollo, American-born. 
< Cubeiio, aborigine of Cuba. 
Cura, curate. 



GLOSSARY 375 



- Encomendado, a native assigned to service under the reparti- 

miento (which see). 

- Encomendero, the master of an encomienda (which see). 

- Encomienda, a parcel of natives as assigned to service under the 

r&partimiento (which see). 
Escribania, clerkship. There were various escribanias, — offices 

of considerable account. 
Escribano, clerk: notary. An official of importance. 

- Estancia, a farm. The name implies that food-crops were raised 

thereon. 

F 

Fanega, a dry measure. 

Fundicion, the gold-smelting plant and the periods each season 
of its operation. 

G 

- Guajiro, the present-day countryman of Cuba. 

- Guanines, trinkets belonging to the aborigines; especially those 

made of hand-wrought gold. 

- Guayacan, a hard wood of Cuba. 

H 

- Hutia, a wood-rat. 

I 

Indio, Indian: an aborigine of America. 
Indio cayo, an Indian from an islet (see cayo). 
Indio de paz, a peaceful Indian, i. e., one obedient to Spaniards. 
(See cimarron.) 

- Indio manso, a tame Indian. 

J 

Juez, judge. 

Juez de comision, a judge commissioned by the audiencia 
(which see) to investigate specific charges. He was limited 
by his commission; he could merely gather information and 
arrest delinquents, carrying both off to the audiencia for its 
further action. 



376 GLOSSARY 

Juez de residencia, a judge commissioned to conduct a residencia 

(which see). 
Juez pezquisidor, a judge conducting a pezquisa (which see). 
Juez visitador, a judge commissioned by competent authorities 

to make a specified inspection. 
Justicia (la), "the justice," i. e., the alcaldes of a municipality: 

see alcalde. 
Justicia mayor, a civil judicial official: he had approximately 

the civil powers of a governor. 



Legajo, a package of documents. 
Letrado, literally "lettered," i. e., versed in law. 
Licenciado, licenciate: the title of a graduated, i. e., licensed 
lawyer. 

M 

Maestre de campo, a military title, approximately, colonel. 
Malanga, an edible root. 

Maravedi, a coin usually rated as ^ of a real (which see). 
Mestizo, a person of mixed blood, especially Indian and Cauca- 
sian. 

N 

Naboria or naburia, a Cubeno assigned to personal or household 

service away from his native village (see repartimiento). 
Naboria perpetua, a servant assigned for life. 

O 

Oidor, judge of an audiencia (which see). 



Palenque, an outlaws' stockade. 

Penas de camara, petty fines levied by the lowest court. 

Peso, a measure of value, originally a weight (the word means 
weight), but eventually a coin which comprised a variable 
number of reales: there were pesos of twelve reales, and of 



GLOSSARY 377 

ten reales and, again, there were pesos de a ocho reales, i. e., 
"pieces of eight." The word peso is still used in Cuba to 
designate the Spanish five peseta coin, or "dollar," or duro, 
which is, it is interesting to notice, still a "piece of eight," 
reales fuertes. 

Pesquiza secreta, a secret inquisition into an official's adminis- 
tration; a secret assembling of evidence against him to be 
laid before a higher court to determine whether or not further 
action was necessary. 

Plaza, square: the official center of a town. Not always an open 
park. 

Plaza de armas, open ground usually near a fort, for military 
exercises. 

Procurador, attorney, advocate; a delegate representing his 
constituents. 



Quarto, a copper coin. 
Quintal, hundredweight. 

R 

Rancho, the camp of outlaws. 

Ranchear, to hunt down outlaws. 

Real, a measure of value: a coin. See maravedi and peso. 

Regidor, member of a municipal council. 

Regidor perpetuo, life-hold member of such council. 

Regimiento, the members of a municipal council considered as 
constituting it. 

Repartidor, an official empowered by the crown to assign natives 
to service under the repartimiento (which see). 

Repartimiento, the system of bondage of native to Spaniard 
described at the beginning of Chapter III. 

Residencia, an inquisition into an incumbent's conduct in office 
made usually by his successor at the close of his term. This 
investigation was a routine affair and no reflection upon an 
official whereas a visita, a pesquiza or the appearance of a 
juez de comision were distinct intimations that something 
wrong was suspected. The residencia was openly conducted 



378 GLOSSARY 

and a juez de residencies was empowered to sentence; appeal 

was to the council for the Indies. 
Residenciar, to subject an official to a residencia (which see). 
Retablo, the decorated backboard and sides of an altar. 



Teniente, lieutenant. 

Teniente de gobernador, governor's lieutenant. 

Teniente gobernador, lieutenant-governor. 



Vecindad, a grant of land to own which established a man's 
condition as a vecino: therefore it entailed a political condi- 
tion. 

Vecino, a land-holding resident, and therefore a citizen. 

Veedor, inspector. 

Visita, an inspection ordered by competent authority. 



Yuca, a plant from roots of which the aborigines distilled poison 
and also made bread (there are two varieties of yuca); see 
cazabe. 

Yaguasa, a duck native to Cuba. 



INDEX OF TOPICS 

(Consult also Indices of Persons and of Places) 



Aborigines, of Cuba: Tribes of east, 5; of west, 10; racial analysis, per- 
sonal characteristics, domestic life, political organization, religion, 
diversions, disappearance before Spaniards, 10-16; resistance to 
conquest, 25-26, 28-37, 93, 116, 171, 174, 185-188, 195-196. 
See also Repartimiento and Slavery. 

Accountant, royal. See Officials, royal. 

Agriculture, primitive, 13; under Spaniards, 43, 58, 65, 117, 194, 207- 
209, 306-307. 

Alcaldes, denned, 62. See Municipalities. 

Alguaciles, denned, 63. See Municipalities. 

Antillans. See Aborigines. 

Armadas. See Commerce. 

Arms, Cuba's coat of, 82. 

Artillery, see Fortifications. 

Audiencia, at Santo Domingo, 62-63, 87, etc. 



C 

Cabildo, denned, 62. See Municipalities. 

Caribs. See Aborigines. 

Cathedral, 64, 122, 319. 

Cattle, 58, 62, 65, 103, 192, 207, 206-207, 265, 306. See Hides. 

Church, influence of, 121; buildings, 45, 82, 122, 191, 193, 210, 229, 235, 

240, 320, 365-366, 368. See Monasteries. 
Cobre, Our Lady of. See Cueyba. 
Commerce, 58-59, 79-81, 103, 209-212, 215-216, 224-227, 228, 243-244, 

258-260, 305, 350. See English, and French, the. 
Conquest, of Cuba, 22-37. See p., 15 and Repartimiento. 
Contratacion, Casa de la, 211. 
Copper, 116, 203-207, 308-311, 370. 

Corsairs, 216, 259. See English, French, Portuguese, the. 
Cotton. See Miraguano. 

379 



380 INDEX OF TOPICS 

Crown, relations to Cuba, 67. See Audiencia, Casa de la Contratacion 

and Council for the Indies. 
Cuba, origin of name, 5, 68. 

Customs duties, 64, 80-81, 92, 104, 128, 209-210, 224, 261-263. 
Customs house, at Santiago, 64, 190-191; at Havana, 263, 312-313, 332, 

333-334. See Frontispiece. 

D 

Discovery, of Cuba, 6. 

Dominicans, religious Order of. See Monasteries. 

E 

Elections. See Municipalities and Procuradores. 
Encomendados, defined, 47. See Repartimiento. 
Encomendero, defined, 47. See Repartimiento. 
Encomienda, defined, 38; size, title, 47. See Repartimiento. 
English, the, 258-259, 297-298, 301, 346-360, 369-370. 
Exploration, of Cuba, 5-9, 17-20, 22, 28-37. 
Exports, 211. See Hides. 



Factor, royal. See Officials, royal. 

Fernandina, Cuba so called, 68. 

Fleets, plate and merchant. See Commerce. 

Fortifications, at Baracoa, 26, 45, 91, 102; at Santiago, 60, 168, 176, 190, 

278-280; at Havana, 207, 220-224, 248-254, 275-278, 286-291, 

303-304, 311-312, 332, 348, 352-354, 370. 
French, the, 117, 174, 176, 180, 192, 215-220, 223, 243, 246-248, 254- 

257, 258, 266, etc., 270-293, 301, 303, 346, 361-368. 
Fundicion, at Santiago, 64, 66, 81, 104, 134, 190, 203, 210. See Gold. 



G 

Galleys, 302-303, 370. 

Genoese, the, 119, 266. 

Geology, structural, of Cuba, 9. 

Germans, the, 194, 197, 205, 206. 

Gold, in Cuba, mining and smelting, 7, 8, 9, 22, 27, 30-31, 34, 35, 39, 58, 

64-65, 69, 72, 75, 81, 87, 94, 102, 116, 134, 145, 151, 174, 202-203, 

204-205, 210, 308. See Fundicion. 



INDEX OF TOPICS 381 

H 

Hides, 82, 210, 265-266, 301, 305, 307, 318, 346. See Commerce; French, 

the; and Tithes. 
Hogs, 62, 82, 103, 306. 
Hospitals: at Santiago, 191, 210; at Havana, 229, 235, 240, 315-316. 



Imports. See Commerce and Customs Duties. 

Improvements. See Customs Houses, Fortifications, Hospitals, Roads. 

Indies, Council for, 63, 127, etc. 

Inquisition, the, 50, 56, 132-134, 148, 302. 

Iron, 9, 203, 308. 

Italians, the, 194. 



Jeronimites, the (tribunal), 70, 71, 140. 
Jesuits, religious Order of, 283, 317. 
Juana, Cuba so named, 6, 68. 

K 

King, the. See Crown. 



Land, grants of, 62, 82, 94; Caceres' ordinances concerning, 265-266, 

305-306, 313. 
Landfall, Columbus', on Cuba, 6. 
Loans, 209, 261. 

M 

Maps, Cantino's and de la Cosa's, 21. See Frontispiece. 

Marriage, 12, 44, 126, etc., 195, etc., 198. 

Measles, epidemics of. See Smallpox. 

Mines, mining. See Gold, Iron, Silver. 

Miraguano, 8, 10. 

Monasteries, Dominican and Franciscan, at Santiago and Havana, 152, 

176, 191, 210, 316-317, 329, 352, 365. 
Money, 203. 
Municipalities, establishment of, 62-63; relations to crown, 67, 89-91; 

functions, etc., 94, 107-114, 126, 127, 129-131, 141, 268, 325-329. 

See Procuradores. 



382 INDEX OF TOPICS 

N 
Naborias. defined, 47. See Repartimiento. 

O 
Officials, royal, 41, 64, 90, etc., 262-264, 325, etc. 



Pestilence. See Smallpox. 

Pine, 9, 307-308. 

Population, 194, 195, 256, etc., 260, 305. 

Portugal, king of, 17, 215. See Portuguese. 

Portuguese, the, 194-195, 236, 238, 259, 266, etc. 

Procuradores, 62-63, 66-67, 68, etc., 110-114, 116, 129-131, 143. 

Property. See Land, grants of. 

Protector of Indians. See Repartimiento. 

R 

Rebellion, black, the first, 151, 197. 

Regidores, defined, 62. See Municipalities. 

Regimiento, defined, 62. See Municipalities. 

Repartidor de Indios, defined, 46. See Repartimiento. 

Repartimiento, system: Definition of, 38; description of, its establish- 
ment, theory, practice, effects, abolition, etc., 38-56, 68-72, 124, 
126-127, 129, 135-157, 178-188, 192, 195, 200-201, 229-231. 
See also Slavery. 

Revenues, 64, 209-210, 261. See Customs Duties. 

Roads, 82, 104, 126, 193. 

S 

Schools, 283, 317, 319. 

Settlement, earliest, 59-63. See Population. 

Silver, 9, 204, 308. 

Situados, 248, 261. See Fortifications. 

Slavery, slaves, 14, 48, 57-58, 122-123, etc., 126, 139, 151, 179, 196-202, 

208, 232, 259, etc., 270, 313-315. 
Smallpox, epidemics of, 16, 86, 136, 201, 288-289. 
Spaniards, in Cuba, character of, 15, 28, 29, 49-56, 77, 83-84; points of 

view of, etc., 198-200, 243-244, 258-259. See Marriage. 
Sugar, industry, the, 105, 116, 207-208, 210, 370. 



INDEX OF TOPICS 383 

T 

Tainans, the. See Aborigines. 

Taxation, 64, 104, 126, 136, 137, 174, 209, 228, 354. 

Tithes, 64, 121, 264. See under names of the various Bishops. 

Tobacco, 7. 

Trade. See Commerce and Customs Duties. 

Treasurer, royal. See Officials, royal. 

Treasury, 64. See Officials, royal. 



Vecindad, defined, 47. 
Vecino, defined, 47-48. 

w 

Walls, city. See Fortifications. 

Water, supply, at Santiago, 82; at Havana, 228. 

Witch-craft, 136. 

Woods, hard, 307. See Pine. 



INDEX OF PERSONS 



Agramonte, Juan de, 178, 185, 

229. 
Aguayo, Captain Jeronimo, 183. 
Aguero, dona Catalina de, 119. 
Aguero, Francisco de, 128, 129. 
Aguilar, Alonso de, 131. 
Alaminos, Anton de, 73, 87. 
Aldeano de Mendoza, Juan Diaz, 

316. 
Almeyda, Sebastian de, 320. 
Altamirano, Lie. Juan, 105-109, 

135. 
Alvarado, Pedro de, 75. 
Anasco, Juan de, 170. 
Andrada, Bachiller, 153, 319. 
Angulo, Doctor. See Perez de 

Angulo. 
Angulo, dona Francisca de, 246. 
Angulo, dona Violante de, 230, 

246. 
Angulo, Francisco de, 246. 
Antoneli, Bautista de, 228, 370. 
Arana, Pedro de, 333, 334-335, 

340. 
Avila, Alonso de, 180, 208. 
Avila, Lie. Juanes de, 173, 176- 

182, 192, 208, 222, 228. 
Azeituno, Juan de, 222. 

B 

Baeza y Carvajal, don Jorge, 324- 

325, 326. 
Banderas, Francisco de, 266. 



Barba, Diego de, 138. 

Barba, Juan, 129. 

Barreda, Captain Baltazar, 276, 

333. 
Bazan, Juan de, 217. 
Benbrilla, Alonso, 89. 
Bernal, Captain Pedro, 359. 
Bernaldez, Bernaldo, 232. 
Bobadilla, Francisco de, 21. 
Bobadilla, Isabel (Lady), 167, 

170-172, 222. 
Bobadilla, Leonor (Lady), 167. 
Bono de Quexo, Juan, 111, 130. 

C 

Caballero, Diego de, 89. 
Caballos, Hernando de, 164-165. 
Cabeza de Vaca, Alvar, 164-165. 
Cabezas, don Juan (Bishop), 121. 
Cabrera, Lie. Diego, 269, 273, 284, 

299, 302. 
Caceres Ovando, Dr. Alonso, 291- 

292, 299, 305-307, 313, 325- 

329. 
Caguax, cacique, 26, 29. 
Calona, Francisco, 253, 303, 320, 

336. 
Calvillo y Avellaneda, Francisco, 

54, 302, 320. 
Calvillo y Avellaneda, Captain, 

304. 
Camacho, Captain Luis, 365. 
Cancer, Fray Luis, 255. 
Cafion, Rodrigo, 89. 



384 



INDEX OF PERSONS 



385 



Carasa, Lie, 232. 
Caro, Gaspar, 150, 153. 
Carreno, Captain Francisco, 300- 

323, 331. 
Carvajal, Fray Diego de, 316. 
Casas, Fray Bartolome de las, 

1, 5, 6, 30-37, 63, 69, etc. 
Castillo, Maestro, 318-321. 
Castro, Hernando de, 117, 127, 

218, 139-140, 151, 175, 178, 

182, 208, 222. 
Castro Bazan, Luis de, 361. 
Cepero, family, 102. 
Cespedes, Sancho, Bachiller, 319. 
Charles, I., "V. of Germany," 

70-242. 
Chaves, Lie. Antonio de, 173, 180- 

185, 192, 209, 228. 
Clavijo, Alvaro, 309-310. 
Colon, Bartolome, 22. 
Colon, Cristobal, 5-7, 17-20. 
Colon, Diego, 22, 23, 89, 92, 94, 

123. 
Colon, Luis, 123, 161, 178. 
Columbus, Christopher. See 

Colon, Cristobal. 
Conchillos, Lope de, 24. 
Cortes, Hernando, 40, 63, 74, 76, 

85-97. 
Cruz, Fray Francisco de la, 316. 
Cuellar, Cristobal, de, 25, 41, 46, 

90, 128. 
Cuellar, dona Maria de, 25, 41. 

D 

Davila, Pedrarias, 63, 167. 
Diaz del Castillo, 1, 63. 
Dovalle, Gonzalo, 94. 
Drake, Francis (Sir), 298, 300, 

346-360, 369-371. 
Duero, Andres de, 90, 102, 107, 

117. 



Duran, Diego Lopez, 263, 289, 

319, 333. 
Duran, Rodrigo, 108, 145. 
Duranga, Bishop, 234, 261, 318. 

E 

Elizabeth, Queen, of England, 

297-298, 350. 
Escalante, Alonso de, 55, 148, 194. 
Escobar, Gonzalo de, 129. 
Espinosa, Luis de, 204. 
Estevez, Lie, 180-181. 

F 

Ferdinand and Isabella, 1-70. 

Fernandez de Cordoba, Fran- 
cisco, 72-74. 

Fernandez de Quiflones, Captain 
Diego, 336-360. 

Ferrer de Vargas, dona Isabel, 344. 

Ferrer de Vargas, Juan, 188, 343- 

344, 351. 

Flores de Valdes, Alvaro, Captain 

General, 342, 369. 
Flores de Valdes, Diego, Captain 

General, 299. 

G 

Gallego, Gonzalo, 274. 
Garay, Francisco de, 95-96. 
Godoy, Captain, 278-280. 
Gomez Arias, 122, 171-172. 
Gomez Patifio, Captain, 364-367. 
Gomez, Vicente, 351. 
Gonzalez, Captain Vicente, 359. 
Grijalva, Juan de, 30, 41, 74-76, 

85. 
Guama(n), cacique, 126, 138-140, 

159. 
Guer(r) a de la Vega, Pedro, 344- 

345, 352. 



386 



INDEX OF PERSONS 



Guerrero, Francisco, 148, 153, 363. 

Guevara, Captain Pedro, 348. 

Guzman, Gonzalo de, 74, 87, 88, 
93-94, 102, 104, 106, 107, 109, 
113-127, 137, 138, 140-141, 
142-149, 158-162, 175, 182, 191, 
204-205, 208, 209. 

Guzman, dona Guiomar de, 161, 
177, 181. 

H 

Hatuey, cacique, 25, 44, 45, 48. 
Hawkins, John, 259, 298. 
Hernandez, dona Catalina, 331. 
Hortegon, Bernabe de, 267. 
Hurtado, Lope de, 118, 128, 136, 
149, 175, 183, 221. 



Inhatuey. See Hatuey. 
Insunsolo, Hortuno de, 64, 90. 
Isabella. See Ferdinand. 
Isasaga, Pedro de, 90. 



Julian, 74. 



Lagos, Esteban de, 151. 
Lares, Amador de, 64, 90, 196. 
LisanoLuyando, Captain, 364-367. 
Lobera, Juan de, 206, 222-223, 

233, 235, 236-240, 248, 335. 
Lobera, dona Maria de, 329. 
Lopez, Antonio, 138. 
Lopez, Bachiller Diego, 154. 
Lopez Quiros, Diego, 351. 
Luna y Arellano, don Tristan de, 

255. 
Luxan, Captain General Gabriel 

de, 324-360. 



M 

Maldonado, Diego, 171-172. 
Maldonado, Francisco, 153, 154. 
Manrique de Rojas, Hernan, 256, 

302, 310-311, 343, 350. 
Martinez, Lie, 244. 
Martin, Pedro, 131. 
Martyr, Pedro, 21. 
Mazariegos, Diego de, 242, 244- 

248, 260, 265, 266-267, 268. 
Mazariegos, Francisco de, 246. 
Medina, Fernando de, 89. 
Medina, Gonzalo de, 160. 
Medina Cerezo, Sancho, 309. 
Melchor, 74, 84. 
Mendoza, Martin de, 279. 
Menendez de Aviles, Pedro de, 

234, 247, 257, 267, 270-293. 
Menendez Marquez, Pedro, 284, 

299, 346, 349, 359. 
Mesa, Hernando de, 121. 
Mexia, Garcia, 36. 
Mexia de Trillo, Fray Pedro, 142- 

146. 
Millan, Juan, 133-134. 
Minas Ceballos, Lie, Juan de, 324, 

364. 
Miruelo, trader, 163. 
Montalvo, don Gabriel de, 188, 

292, 298-300. 
Morales, Bartolome, 300. 
Morales, Francisco de, 40. 
Moron, Pedro de, 148, 150. 
Mosquera, Juan, 104, 106. 
Mota, "Captain," (Ricarte), 362. 
Muniz, Provisor Sebastian, 151, 

153. 
Munoz, Juan, 55, 148. 

N 

Nabia, Juan Alonso de, 284. 
Narvaez, Diego de, 165. 



INDEX OF PERSONS 



387 



Narvaez, Panfilo de, 27-36, 68- 
71, 74, 79, 88, 89, 91, 103, 153- 
154. 

Nieta, Isabel, 251. 

Nis, Andres de, 251. 

Nunez de Guzman, Pedro, 90, 
102, 107, 117, 118, 128. 

Nunez Lobo, Manuel, 310. 

Nunez; Vela, Blasco, 224. 

O 

Obregon, Gonzalo de, 138-139. 
Ocampo, Sebastian de, 22, 44, 

58, 60. 
Olid, Cristobal de, 75. 
Orellano, Diego de, 74. 
Origat, dona Theodora, 331. 
Ortiz, Bartolome, 173-177. 
Osorio de Sandoval, Garcia, 268, 

273-281. 
Ovando, Nicolas de, 31. 
Oyo Villota, Sebastian del, 178. 



Parada, Andres and Francisco, 

102, 222, 265, 279, 280, 319-320. 
Pardo Osorio, Sancho, 284, 290, 

299. 
Parra, Captain Juan de la, 273- 

274. 
Pasamonte, Miguel de, 22, 24, 40, 

45, 65, 118. 
Paz, Pedro de, 90, 102, 104, 107, 

119, 151, 160, 178. 
Pelaez, Hernando, Captain, 351. 
Perez, Diego, 218-219. 
Perez de Angulo, Dr. Gonzalo, 

183, 185, 192, 206, 209, 229- 

240, 245, 283. 
Perez de Olacabal, Martin, 355. 
Philip II., 242-371. 
Plan, Juan de, 136. 



Ponce de Asis, Pro visor, 133. 

Ponce de Leon, 163. 

Ponce, Hernan, 172. 

Ponce, Juan, 79. 

Porcallo de Figueroa, Vasco, 63, 

102, 131, 169, 170, 171, 172, 175, 

193, 270, 301. 
Poveda, Alonso de, 153. 

Q 

Quesada, Bernaldino de, 120. 
Quesada, Pedro de, 266. 

R 

Rabanal, Francisco, 131. 
Ramirez, Maestro Miguel de, 120, 

123, 132-134, 141, 147-152, 

169, 175, 200. 
Recio, Anton, 282-284, 330-331. 
Recio, Juan, 188, 331, 354. 
Recio, Maria, 331. 
Redroban, Captain Pedro de, 276- 

277. 
Ribera, Catalina de, 322. 
Ribera, Diego de, 284, 287, 322. 
Roelas, Captain General Pedro 

de las, 247, 274. 
Rojas, family, 102. See also 

Manrique de Rojas and Ynes- 

trosa. 
Rojas, Alonso de, 231, 308. 
Rojas, Gabriel de, 160. 
Rojas, Juan Bautista de, 299, 322, 

323, 329, 352. 
Rojas, Juan de, 87, 171, 186, 217, 

222-223, 232, 233, 235, 246, 248, 

260, 283, 329. 
Rojas, Manuel de, 47, 49, 54, 101, 

106, 110-114, 119, 127, 129, 

134-160, 191, 197, 232. 
Rojas Manrique, Gomez de, 246, 

298-299, 302, 361-368. 



388 



INDEX OF PERSONS 



Rojas y Avellaneda, Geronimo, 

320, 323, 329. 
Roman, Juan Bautista, 333. 

S 

Salcedo, Bishop, 363. 
Samano, Diego de, 89. 
Sanchez, Bartolome, 248-252, 268. 
Sanchez del Corral, Alonso, 102, 

131, 251, 265. 
Santa Cruz, Francisco, 89. 
Santiesteban, Lie, 322. 
Santillan, Diego de, 281. 
Sardo de Arana, Captain Mel- 

chor, 331-332, 334-336, 338- 

339, 353. 
Sarmiento, don Fray Diego, 169, 

175, 179, 191, 192, 234. 
Sores, Captain Jacques, 233-241. 
Soto, family, 102. 
Soto, Diego de, 102, 107, 251, 298, 

329, 354. 
Soto, Hernando de, 115, 117, 162- 

177, 207, 220-222. 
Soto, Luis de, 267. 
Soto Long6, Captain Cristobal 

de, 187. 
Suarez de Toledo, Alonso, 349, 

356-357. 



Tamayo, Rodrigo de, 93, 102, 135. 
Tello de Guzman, Juan, 243. 
Texeda, Juan de, 369. 
Tezel, Juan, 204-206, 309, 310. 
Tobar, Captain Nufto de, 167, 169. 
Toledo, dona Maria de, 25, 123, 

125, 158. 
Toledo, Fray Antonio, 152. 
Torre, Juan de la, 141. 
Torrequemada, Garci-Fernandez, 

241-244. 



Torres, Lie. Gaspar de, 323. 

U 

Ubi(c) te, don Juan de, 120-122. 
Urrutia, Sancho de, 89-90. 



Vadillo, Juan de, 115, 123-134, 

138, 158, 168, 193, 202, 205, 224. 
Valdes, Pedro de, 277. 
Valenzuela, Maria de, 163-164. 
Vazquez de Ayllon, Lucas, 87-88, 

163. 
Velazquez, family, 102. 
Velazquez, Antonio de, 68-71, 74, 

79, 255. 
Velazquez, Bernaldino de, 90, 117. 
Velazquez, Diego de, 23, 25, 26- 

97, 105-107. 
Velazquez, Pedro, 230. 
Velazquez de Cuellar, Alonso, 266. 
Valazquez de Leon, Pedro, 74. 
Vergara, Juan de, 154, 156. 
Villafane, Angel de, 255. 
Villapando, Bishop Bernaldino, 

261, 318. 

X 

Xerez, Pedro de, 81, 92, 128. 



Ynestrosa, Juan de, 102, 186, 232, 

251, 253, 284, 299, 329. 
Yniguez, Bernaldino de, 89. 

Z 

Zayes, Lie. Francisco de, 282. 
Zuazo, Alonso de, 89, 91, 92, 94- 
96, 106. 



INDEX OF PLACES 



(Many minor mentions have been omitted. Old spelling of names has 
been preferred) 



Almendares, River. See Chorrera. 
Asuncion, Nuestra Senora de la. 

See Baracoa. 
Axaruco, see Jaruco. 

B 

Bainoa, 240. 

Baracoa, founding of, 26, 54, 63; 

decline, 122, 138, 174, 192, 232. 
Batabano. See Matabano. 
Bayamo, 28, 45, 57, 110, 131, 136, 

137, 138, 151, 153, 156, 174, 187, 

192, 232, 234, 265, 266, 301, 319, 

363, etc. 
Bermuda, 333. 
Bimini, see Florida. 



Camaguey, 29, 31, 59, 63. See 

Puerto Principe. 
Caney, El, 186, 368. 
Caonao, 32. 
Carahatas, 35. 
Carenas, see Havana, port. 
Cauto, River, 301, etc. 
Cauto, Embarcadero de, 301. 
Cauto, Venta de, 138. 
Channel, the Bahama, 116, 217, 

255. 
Chorrera, La, 228, 233, etc., 370. 



Cienfuegos. See Xagua. 

Cobre, mines at. See Copper. 

Cojimar, 240. 

Corrientes, Cape, 87. 

Cruz, Cape, 19, 20, 60, 301, etc. 

Cuba, Santiago de, 18, 59, 63-64, 
79-81, 82, 122, 138, 164, 174, 
176, 180, 187, 190-191, 203- 
207, 218-219, 230-231, 232, 
234, 246, 278-280, 361-368. 

Cueyba, 31, 202. 

D 

Darien, Isthmus of, 21, 59, 63, 
79, etc. 

E 

Espaflola, La, island (Hayti or 
San Domingo), 7, 17. See 
Audiencia. 



Florida, 73, 79, 117, 162-172, 190, 

204, 207, 254-256, 270-273. 

Fuerza, 248. See Fortifications. 

G 

Guanabacoa, 186, 188, 249, etc. 
Guanajes, the, 71. 
Guaniguanico, 49, 85. 
Guatanago, 18, 301. 



389 



390 



INDEX OF PLACES 



Guantanamo. See Guatanago. 
Guillen's, inlet (San Lazaro), 236, 
etc. See Fortifications. 

H 

Habana. See Havana. 
Habanana, Las Sabanas de, 265. 
Havana, city and port of, 59, 73, 

74, 76, 85, 109, 111, 116, 130, 

170, 180, 185, 194, 207, 215, 

217, 219-241, 245-254. 
Havana, province, 35. 
Hayti, island of. See Espafiola, 

La. 



Isle of Pines, 20, 307-308. 



Jamaica, 19, 27, 58, 59, 79, etc., 
120, 318. See Hernan Man- 
rique and Gomez de Rojas. 

Jaruco, 73, 76. 

Jobabo, 151, 202. 

Juragua. See Xurugua. 

M 

Macaca, 85, 234. 

Manzanilla, 40, 45, 301, etc. 

Manzanillo. See Manzanilla. 

Mariel. See Marien. 

Marien, 87, 217, 241. 

Matabano, 59, 222. 

Matanzas, bay, 36, 74, 75, 193, 
207, 250. 

Mexico, 59, 72-97, 116, 190, etc. 

Morro, headlands. See Fortifica- 
tions. 

N 

Nuevitas, 193. 



Peru, 116, 160, 165-166, 190, 193. 
Pinar del Rio, province, 27. 
Portillo, 202. 
Puerto Principe, 131, 136, 141, 

142, 169, 182, 187, 193, 202, 232, 

265. See Camaguey. 
Puerto Rico, San Juan de, 79, etc. 
Punta. See Fortifications. 

S 

Sabana, La, 193, 202. 
Sabana de Guaimaro, 202. 
San Antonio, Cape, 74, 217, etc. 
Sancti Spiritus, 49, 59, 63, 122, 

131, 136, 182, 193,265. 
San Salvador. See Bayamo. 
Santiago de Cuba, see Cuba, 

Santiago de. 
San(to) Domingo, city, 21, 350, 

etc. See Audiencia. 
San (to) Domingo, island of. See 

Espafiola, La. 

T 

Trinidad, 58, 63, 81, 82, 85; 117, 
122, 163, 182, 186, 192-193, 207, 
232, 265. 

V 

Virginia, English settlement at, 
349, 359-360. 



Yara, 45, 265, 320. 

Yucatan, 71, 73. See Mexico. 

X 

Xagua, 36, 44, 95, 164. 
Xurugua, 308, 364, 367. 



Printed in the United States of America 



'"TPHE following pages contain advertisements of books 
by the same author or on kindred subjects. 



Cub< 



THE CUBA OF TO-DAY 



By IRENE A. WRIGHT 



Cloth, illustrated, i2mo, $2.50 
Macmillan Travel Series, $1.50 

"Miss Irene A. Wright, who has lived a number of years in Cuba, and 
who has been connected with a newspaper in Havana during a part of her 
residence, has had many opportunities for studying the island, her political 
and physical conditions and her people and their customs. That her time 
was not wasted and that her eyes were able to see beneath the surface of 
things is shown in her interesting volume of impressions. The work is pop- 
ular in tone and decidedly good reading. Much information is given, but 
the knowledge to be gained by the reader is concealed in many a humorous 
passage." — Springfield Republican. 

"This volume contains descriptions of all those portions of the island, in 
the west and in the east, which are especially interesting to American readers. 
The Isle of Pines is, of course, not slighted, and there are chapters dealing 
with the 'farce' of Cuban autonomy, as well as the riddle of Cuban ethnol- 
ogy." — American Geographical Society. 

"The book reads, not like a guide-book nor a history, but like an engrossing 
novel; yet one is valuably informed as well as vastly entertained by the 
descriptions of every phase of life of the island and the ways of the inhab- 
itants." — Philadelphia Public Ledger. 

"Cuba has been called 'the land of topsy-turvy.' Irene A. Wright ev- 
idently loves this bizarre, inconsequent, easy-going country, and has written 
a delightful book about it. The opening chapter on Havana is like a page 
from the 'Arabian Nights.'" — Rochester Post Express. 

"Abundantly illustrated, the book as a whole is very readable. The de- 
scriptions are tinged with a certain originality, and not a little humor, with 
which is blended an occasional touch of satire." — Providence Journal. 

"There is much of description and comment on Cuban ways and customs, 
methods of living, business, politics, religion, etc., much of it informing, and 
all of it interesting. Miss Wright traversed the island from one extremity 
to the other. She kept her eyes and ears open and recorded what she saw 
and heard in a manner that makes for an illuminating presentment of an 
island of which most of us have heard so much but of which we know so 
little." — Springfield Union. 

"Miss Irene A. Wright's 'Cuba' is an unusually thorough and interesting 
account of existing conditions on that island, and especially in Havana, 
where she has lived for the last ten years." — Chicago Record Herald. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



Filibusters and Financiers 



By WILLIAM O. SCROGGS, Ph.D. 

Professor of Economics and Sociology in the 
University of Louisiana 

Cloth, 8vo, $2.50 

Professor Scroggs has written a very valuable 
supplement to American history in this account 
of the activities of William Walker and his asso- 
ciates in the filibustering activities of the mid- 
nineteenth century. Nothing but scant notice 
has ever been accorded by historians to Walker's 
exploits in Central America and consequently 
one has never been able to form a just apprecia- 
tion of the Latin-American attitude toward the 
United States. Walker and his band were Amer- 
icans and it was as Americans that Nicaraguans 
and Costa Ricans came to distrust and fear them. 

The author in his preface says, "The part played 
in Walker's career and in Central American politics 
by American financiers and captains of industry; 
the designs of Walker upon Cuba; his utter repu- 
diation of the annexation of his conquests to the 
United States; the appeals of Central American 
governments to the leading European powers for 
deliverance from the filibusters; the thinly veiled 
machinations of Great Britain, Spain, and France 
against the American adventurers — these are some 
of the facts, hitherto overlooked or ignored, which 
it is here sought to set forth in their true light." 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



PANAMA, the Canal, the Country, 
and the People 

By ARTHUR BULLARD 

Illustrated, new edition, 8°, $2.00 

"A thoroughly satisfactory book for one who is looking for 
solid information." — Boston Globe. 

"A most interesting picture of the country as it is to-day." — 
San Francisco Chronicle. 

"One of the very few books on any Latin- American country 
that gives any idea of the whole land and people." — Los 

Angeles Times. 

"One of the very best of travel books." — Continent. 

"Lively and readable, containing the real atmosphere of the 
tropics." — Minneapolis Tribune. 

"A book which every American ought to read, both for 
pleasure and profit." — New York Herald. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



The Truth About the Philippines 
The Hon. DEAN C. WORCESTER'S New Book 



The Philippines 



By DEAN C. WORCESTER 

Secretary of the Interior, Philippine Insular Government, 
1901-1913. Author of "The Philippine Islands and 
Their People," etc. 

Illus., 8vo, 2 volumes, 'price $6.00 

There is no greater authority on the Philippines than Mr. 
Worcester who, as early as 1887, and again in 1890 was a 
prominent member of scientific expeditions to the Islands; 
from 1899 to 1901 was a member of the U. S. Philippine 
Commission; since 1901 has been Secretary of the Interior to 
the Insular Government, and who in 1899 published "The 
Philippine Islands and Their People," a record of personal 
observation and experience, with a short summary of the 
more important facts in the history of the archipelago, which 
has ever since been the acknowledged standard work of in- 
formation concerning the Islands. 

In Mr. Worcester's valuable new work, past and present 
conditions are minutely reviewed with regard for strict 
accuracy of statement. The author's position giving him 
free access to all the government records, much of the infor- 
mation thus made available, has never been before made 
public. With practically unlimited material on which to 
draw in the way of illustrations, very fine and rare photo- 
graphs intimately related with the text, emphasize the lessons 
which they are respectively intended to teach. 

The result is a work of the greatest importance as well as 
of the greatest interest to all concerned as to the future pos- 
sibilities of the Philippines and as to the course the United 
States Government should pursue in the interest of the several 
peoples of the Islands. 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



The Mastering of Mexico 

By KATE STEPHENS 

With maps and half-tone plates. 
Decorated cloth, illus., i2mo, $1.50 

This is a simple, close-knit story of adventure founded on 
eye-witness accounts of one of the sixteenth century con- 
querors. The conquest of Mexico was one of the most pic- 
turesque military exploits in all history. How the doughty 
Spaniards made it a community, democratic affair and how 
that fact insured its success, the three hundred and fifty 
pages of this book tell in limpid, idiomatic English. 

"Few stories that have been told of the early history of the 
Americas has so much of daring, so much of dazzling success 
crowning tremendous courage, as has the story of how Cortez 
and his little band of followers entered Mexico and advanced 
straight to the presence of the great monarch Montezuma. 
It is a story that has been often told, though never until very 
recently has the actual record which was made by Bernal 
Diaz del Castillo been offered to the public. Diaz was one 
of the conquistadors himself and his story is a long one, giving 
exact accounts of the conditions which the Spaniards found 
in Mexico, of the Mexicans of his day, their habits, houses, 
clothes and manner of making war, and of the dangers and 
hardships endured by the brave Spaniards who ventured into 
the midst of the country at such personal risk. 

"While shortening the Diaz account somewhat, Miss 
Stephens has kept a very realistic atmosphere in her render- 
ing of it." — Boston Evening Transcript. 

"As fascinating and thrilling as any piece of fiction is this 
account of Cortez and his fierce warriors. Mexico has known 
many eras in her history, but no period lends itself more 
graciously to the romancer than that which Miss Stephens 
uses as the foundation for her timely volume." — Des Moines 
Capital. 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 



OUR NATIONAL PROBLEMS 

Little Books on Big Subjects 



The Heritage of Tyre 

By WILLIAM BROWN MELONEY 
The first, direct, uncompromising demand for a new American mercantile 
marine. Mr. Meloney points out the opportunity that is now ours, the 
opportunity to recover our lost sea prestige and to set our flag waving again 
in every great port of the world. 

Fifty cents 

The Pentecost of Calamity 

By OWEN WISTER, Author of "The Virginian," etc. 
"Mr. Wister may well be congratulated upon having voiced the opinion 
and feelings of all those of his American countrymen who, proud of the na- 
tion's past, hold that you ' cannot pay too high for the finding and keeping 
of your own soul.'" — Philadelphia Ledger. 

Fifty cents 

Straight America 

By FRANCES A. KELLOR 
This book shows how we can best educate and train the immigrant to make 
him indistinguishably American — an integral and necessary element in an 
enlightened and united nationalism. 

Fifty cents 

The Forks of the Road 

By WASHINGTON GLADDEN 
A powerful indictment of war which calls upon the political and religious 
forces of our country to give up preparedness programs and to follow a policy 
that will make for the prevalence of peace. 

Fifty cents 

Their True Faith and Allegiance 

By GUSTAVUS OHLINGER. With an Introduction by Owen Wister. 
A fair, impartial discussion of German propaganda in America describing 
the methods in use and the results achieved. 

Fifty cents 

Americanization 

By ROYAL DIXON 
What are we doing to Americanize the alien? How can we make sure that 
he will emerge from the melting-pot willing to support and to contribute to 
our institutions? These are questions which Mr. Dixon asks and to which 
he offers a clear and simple answer, broad and practical in vision. 

Fifty cents 

THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

Publishers 64-66 Fifth Avenue New York 












? 



s 



